Virginia in the Orange Bowl makes the ACC richer, not more popular.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has spent this week much like he has the rest of the season, defending his third-ranked Tigers who are 13-0 and averaged a plus-30-point margin of victory. If Clemson hadn’t beaten Carolina by one point on September 28, the domination would have looked even worse.
“We play who we’re scheduled to play,” Swinney said, “and we play the same out-of-conference schedule we do almost every year.”
Yes, All-ACC quarterback Trevor Lawrence got off the slow start, throwing a few interceptions before turning it on at mid-season, which the sometimes-entertaining and sometimes-edgy Swinney says cost his spectacular quarterback a chance to be a Heisman Trophy finalist. But the reigning national champs are in the College Football Playoff for the fifth straight year and join LSU as the two unbeatens in the Final Four.
Much of the criticism directed at Clemson has to do with the always underrated ACC, which has won three of the last six national football championships and put 42 teams in bowl games the last four years. That the ACC is known as a basketball-first league hurts, but having the biggest underdog among the 41 bowls doesn’t help our gridiron status.
Sure, the conference has bowl tie-ins, which includes the Orange Bowl. Despite the money the ACC makes, should a 9-4 Coastal Division winner that lost the ACC championship game by 45 points automatically get any top-six bowl like the Orange? Heck, put 15th-ranked Notre Dame, an ACC member in every other sport plus football scheduling, in there with a 10-2 record.
Some of my football buddies in Chapel Hill claim that the Tar Heels would have given Clemson a better game in a Charlotte rematch had they won the Coastal. But the Tigers were that much better than everyone else in the league at the end of the season. They do agree that Virginia wasn’t very good, although the Cavaliers were good enough to beat Carolina and two other teams UNC lost to. The Heels are situated just right in the Military Bowl vs. 8-4 Temple, avoiding a road game at 23rd-ranked and 9-2 Navy.
My buds also say it doesn’t matter what the result is, that just being in a championship game or big bowl is good for recruiting. It may also be undeserving. Virginia, by the way, is a 21-point Dog to ninth-ranked and 9-2 Florida, which is another reason the ‘Hoos don’t really belong there.
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