The ACC should be renamed the Big 1 and Little 13.

Here are a couple of head-scratchers about ACC football eight weeks into the season. Why are Virginia, Boston College and Syracuse the only conference teams so far to secure bowl bids, besides Clemson, which obviously is in a league of its own?

That’s because the rest of the ACC contenders are beating up each other while the Tigers and freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence look headed to a national championship duel with top-ranked Alabama. Clemson has home games left with Louisville and Duke and a trip to Boston College, which still could be for the Atlantic Division title.

Virginia, which held off 1-6 Carolina Saturday, is 6-2 overall and in first place in the ACC Coastal at 4-1 after being picked to finish last in the division. UVa has Pitt at home and road trips to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. If the Cavs can win those three games, they will play for the ACC championship in Charlotte. What a story that would be!

Just look at the ACC football standings after the first eight weeks of the season. While any one of four teams could still win the Coastal, the Atlantic Division is being dominated by 8-0 and second-ranked Clemson, which has blistered N. C. State at home and then almost run Florida State out of Tallahassee. Boston College, like Syracuse has a 3-1 conference record and 6-2 overall, is the only team with a shot at Clemson. The underrated Eagles visit the Tigers on November 10 but also have games left with Virginia Tech, FSU and Syracuse.

The Wolfpack was supposedly Clemson’s big competition, but lost badly at Death Valley. State is 5-2 and will win one more game to earn another bowl bid; however, with seven other schools close to their sixth victories, there is no telling where the Pack will be packing off to come holiday time. The only parity in the ACC is among also-rans.

In all, the league will likely have 12 bowl teams, stretching from the college football championship Final Four to the Independence and Quicken Loan Bowls in the outposts of Shreveport and Detroit. Those other 11 bowl trips are only good for recruiting because Clemson is a wrecking ball that has and should run over all of its ACC opponents.

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