OUTLOOK NOT GOOD FOR ACC FOOTBALL ... UNLESS YOU'RE A CLEMSON FAN
ESPN, which owns the ACC Network (which helps
explain why it is so mediocre, at best), doesn’t offer much
hope for the league’s major, money-making sports … In a
two-year look at football, the 24-hour company formerly
known as the Entertainment and Sports Programming
Network (when people actually took it seriously) lists
only Clemson among the top ten … at No. 7, trailing 1-5
in order, Texas, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Notre Dame
and Penn State … Oops, Notre Dame does play football
in the ACC, but isn’t really a member … Miami (No.11),
SMU (14) and Louisville (24) are … What, no Florida
State? After a terrible 2024, in which they were expected
to make a run at the national championship and wound up
2-10 overall, 1-7 ACC, the Seminoles are seen (by ESPN)
as no better than seventh in the conference this year …
with Miami, Clemson and SMU 1-2-3. Actually, Clemson
rated higher in the “Chance To Win Conference” with
34.0 percent … to Miami’s 30.5 percent but the
Hurricances led 17.5 (to Tigers’ 17.3) in ESPN’s FPI
ranking … WHATEVER THE HECK THAT IS!
Virginia Tech was fourth, ahead of Georgia Tech (5) and
Louisville (6) … Virginia was seen 15th (with a 1.2 FPI
and 0.8 per cent chance to finish first … barely holding
off Stanford, which has employed former NFL Colts and
Carolina coach FRANK REICH for one year while it
conducts an exhaustive (exhausting?) search for someone
to replace TROY TAYLOR, fired in March for reasons
not related to football … and No. 17 Wake Forest, the
only team that had a minus FPI (5.7) and was given a 0.0
chance of winning the conference.
One other man’s opinion: 1-- Clemson; 2 – SMU;. 3 –-
Miami; 4 – Georgia Tech; 5 – FSU; 6 – Louisville; 7 –
Duke; 8 – North Carolina; 9 – North Carolina State; 10 –
Boston College; 11 – Virginia Tech; 12 – Wake Forest; 13
-- Pittsburgh; 14 – Syracuse; 15 – Stanford; 16 – UVA;
and 17 – California … Actually, the only spot we have
100 per cent confidence in is numero uno. Clemson is
loaded, especially on defense. And, coach DABO
SWINNEY finally decided the transfer portal wasn’t such
a bad idea after all … bringing in 23 new faces. Of
course, if QB CADE KLUBNIK is injured … all bets are
off.
The x-factor is UNC which could be very good under
BILL BELICHICK … or not so good, given this is his
first college job taken when the six-time Super Bowl
winner suddenly became unwanted in the NFL …
Compounding the uncertainty in Chapel Hill was the 79
year old Belichick’s over-publicized … ahh, fling with a
24 year old former beauty pageant contestant who
doubles as his (sort of) personal secretary … that has led
to some … shall we say awkward moments … Adding to
this fine mess … the school is paying him $10 million a
year for five years … and, to do whatever it can to protect
its investment, apparently lowered academic standards …
which became public knowledge
thanks to former coach MACK BROWN (fired) who,
nevertheless, wished Belichick well and said he [Brown]
thought it was an excellent hire … Belichick was hired in
March and the players were kept off-limits to the news
media until earlier this week when theThank you.
Associated Press did a puff piece, quoting players (as you
might suspect) how much they liked him. In fact, one Tar
Heel said how surprised he was when Belichick actually
cracked a joke. STOP THE PRESSES!
Until next time …
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