A Historical Look at the ACC, Notre Dame’s New Conference Cousins

With the bye week blues in full swing, today we bring you a look at the historical evolution of the ACC conference and how Notre Dame’s schedule will look moving forward with their new commitment to playing 5 ACC teams a year kicking in next season.

THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE ACC

The Atlantic Coast Conference was organized in 1953, with the cornerstone of the four Carolina schools: North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Duke. They were joined by Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Clemson. In the regional parlance, “Carolina” always refers to the State of North Carolina or that school in Chapel Hill. If you are referring to the Palmetto State or the Gamecocks, you must use both words: South Carolina.

South Carolina left in 1971, eventually winding up in the SEC. For oldsters part of the reason was that Frank McGuire, who coached the Tar Heels to the National championship against Wilt Chamberlain and the Jayhawks in 1957 had wound up coaching at South Carolina. But McGuire always felt that South Carolina was on the outside looking in at the Tobacco Road dominance-and refereeing- and convinced the Gamecock administration to cease accepting the role of a second class citizen and move to the SEC.

Georgia Tech was a gentleman’s school coached by the genteel Bobby Dodd. Then on a gruesome hit by Bama’s Darwin Holt against Georgia Tech’s Chick Graning, Tech began to think about “institutional fit” in the SEC. Remember in the early 70’s the irrepressible Frank Howard of Clemson delighted in calling the SEC “the knucklehead conference.” (It is of course, “Howard’s Rock,” transported from California’s Death Valley, that Clemson players touch on their way down to the field in home games.) Holt’s dirty play was not the proximate cause, but hastened Georgia Tech’s decistiion that with its academic pride and engineering emphasis, that it was more aligned with the ACC than the SEC, and the Ramblin’ Wreck moved to the ACC in 1979.

Florida State, rising from nothing in Tallahassee, was willing to play anyone on the road. Yet because of its success, the Seminoles were having difficulty filling a schedule, and joined the ACC in 1991.

The Conference, best known for its basketball and the glorious battle called the ACC basketball tournament stayed that way until the next big round of conference realignments. The ACC then executed the most ruthless and effective annexation since Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and grabbed the Sudetenlnd, and picked up Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College from the Big East in 2004-2005. That put the Big East on life support, as recent events proved.

In the second, more marginal round of conference expandsions, the ACC added Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville over the 2013-2014 seasons. Maryland will leave the conference after 60 years, and join the Big Ten next Fall. Notre Dame became a full time conference member in tiddlywinks and croquet (men’s and women’s) but the football program retained its independence, deigning to allow five games with ACC football teams each Autumn.

ACC TEAMS THAT HAVE WON FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Syracuse 1959 (Ernie Davis/Schwartzwalder)

In the last 50 years

• Pitt 1976 (Dorsett/Johnny Majors)
• Clemson 1981 (Danny Ford)
• Miami 1983 (Bernie Kosar/Howard Schnellenberger)
• Miami 1987 (Michael Irvin/Steve Walsh/Randy Shannon/Jimmy Johnson/2 Live Crew)
• Miami 1989 (Cortez Kennedy/Tiger Clark/Craig Ericson/Maurice Crum/Dennis Erickson)
• Georgia Tech 1990 (Bobby Ross)
• Miami 1991 (Geno Toretta/Dennis Erickson)
• FSU 1993 (Charley Ward, Derrick Brooks, Bobby Bowden)
• FSU 1999 (Chris Weinke/Peter Warrick/Bobby Bowden)
• Miami 2001 (Ken Dorsey/Andre Johnson/Jeremy Shockey/Willis McGahee/Jonathan Vilma/Vince Wilfork/Sean Taylor/Clinton Portis/Ed Reed/|Bryant McKinnie/D.J.Williams/Larry Coker)

RECRUITING TALENT BASE IN THE ACC AREA.

The following is based on the ESPN list for the 2014 football class of top 300 players. It’s close enough for government work. ESPN top 300 Livestock list:

(1) FL 53
(2) TX 34
(3) GA 29
(4) CA 28
(5) LA 18
(6) AL 13
(7) NC 12
(7T) MD 12
(9) OH 10
(9T) NJ 10
(9T) SC 10
(12) IL 9
(13) VA 8
(14) MS 7
(14T) TN 7
(16) OK 6
(16T or 17) AZ 6

That’s 124 studs (out of 300) from states with ACC schools. Voila, 40%. The Big Ten States had 37 out of 300 or a mere 30% stud density compared to the ACC states.

With the Purdue series now in atrophy, our consciousness, our games, our press coverage and our presence will be tilted to the ACC states, and this SHOULD enhance recruiting. Know this: the first time the Irish go to play one of the ACC schools other than FSU or Miami, it will be a BIG DEAL, and there will be TV, internet and newspaper (however long they’re arround) coverage of the buildup, the game, and Harry from Hound’s Gap who’s been waiting his whole life to see his beloved Irish. Further, the 14 full membership schools will be having a a championship game between the reconfigured Atlantic and Coastal divisions. Notre Dame will be a subject of discussion. Teams that have Notre Dame on their schedule in a given year will be deemed disadvantaged vis a vis teams that don’t have the Irish on the schedule. Further, Notre Dame can be a two edged sword for opponents in the mix for the four team playoff. We will increase both strength of schedule and the difficulty of going unbeaten. We will get press from this, either way. It will be a subject of discussion and, not to go all PT Barnum on this, but there is no such thing as bad publicity.

This creates no recruiting slam dunks, but increases the marginal efficiency of the efforts and blandishments of the staff.

NOTRE DAME’S 2014 ACC OPPONENTS

Each year, Notre Dame will play 5 of the 14 ACC teams. The means we will see a team AT LEAST every three years. And we should have AT LEAST one of FSU, Miami, Va Tech and Clemson on each year. Louisville is stable at a solid level. Georgia Tech and Duke have coaches that fit their niche (caste) and institution. Perhaps Pitt has. Wake, NC State, North Carolina and Virginia, could each or all see coaching and therefore program changes in the next three years. None of the four coaches has solidified his status (Grobe seems out of gas). BC has recruiting and fan support issues, and Syracuse is in its first year under Scott Shafer. Our 5 2014 ACC opponents

Syracuse – closer to the shores of Lake Skaneateles than the Atlantic Ocean the Orange are now in the ACC. (The conference has an Orange hue, with Clemson and Virigina also featuring the color, VA Tech just a little bit).  We’ll play the Orange in the new Meadowlands ball park and, looking from 11 months away, we should be a double digit favorite. But let us be pluperfectly clear. The Orange have inflicted two horrific defeats on the Fighting Irish in this decade, 38-12 in the Carrier Dome in 2003 and then, in Kameron Dantley’s career game, 24-23 in South Bend in 2008. Next Fall when game time approaches, force yourself to watch those two games again before you start clucking over the ease with which the Irish will dispatch the Orange! For what it’s worth Brian Kelly’s Cincinnatti Bearcats easily defeated Syracue each time they played.

STRUGGLING NORTH CAROLINIANS

 Wake Forest -got to the ACC championship and beat Georgia Tech to win it in 2006, with blue smoke and mirrords from Wake alum Jim Grobe. But it’s a small school, a basketball school, and has none of the big time athletic cachet of its neighbors on Tobacco Road. The Irishshut out Wake 38-0 on Senior Day in 2012. Tanner Price is finally a Senior.

North Carolina – well, now, when mouthy Larry Fedora came North from Hattiesburg to Chapel Hill he talked the talk, but even with vet qb Brynn Renner has had difficulty walking the walk. So far the Heels are 12-9 and Butch Davis did NOT leave a bare cupboard. Fedora may be squirming on the hot seat when we play the Rennerless Heels next Fall. The Heels finished 42d in recruiting in 2013 but are ahead of that pace right now.

A “STRONG” CHALLENGE

Louisville – our old friend Charley Strong was 25-14 heading into this year, with an, ahem, BCS win over Florida, and has ridden Teddy Bridgewater to an 8-1 record this year. Louisville has built a very stout defense. It is expected that Bridgewater will be playing on Sundays next year, but this willl be a stern test for the Irish,. Louisville, as long as Strong remains, will be one of college football’s 25 best teams in most years.

FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES!

Yippee! In the year the college football expands to a meager four (it should be 16) team playoff, the Irish will need strengh of schedule. FSU will provide that. And Nightmares for the Irish players and coaching staff. With Stanford’s graduation losses, and USC still a year or two away, this should, by a margin, be the most talented team we will play. They would appear to return 14 starters, but a few early entrants may reduce that.

The same type of defensive studs that gave us fits in the Champs Bowl, a veteran OL, and a cadre of running backs and wide receivers. They are a “PROGRAM” From 2010 through the November standings for 2014, FSU’s recruiting rankings on Rivals are #10,#2, #6, #10, #6. That’s a lot of talent all over the place. They have eliminated the torpor of the latter days of the Bowden regime. And we got in more than 100 words before we mentioned Jameis Winston. Kid can play!

No matter what else occurs FSU should offer the best defense and best QB we will play. Of course, we did win the last time we played in Tallahasee……

It’s the dawn of an era. Once we looke to the Eastern powers for our identity and acclaim. They we became embroiled with the Big Ten. It’s a new day!

Go Irish!