Admitting that Wake Forest is the best team in the ACC is like suggesting that Lauren is the best character on "The Hills." With all due respect to Wake, they are not a top 10 team. Probably not even a top 20 team. Likewise, Lauren is a pretty miserable person, but she seems like a decent girl when surrounded by the likes of Heidi, Lo, and Audrina. In both circumstances, it is more of a process of elimination.
Wake Forest needed a last second field goal last week to beat Ole Miss -- arguably the 9th or 10th best team in the SEC -- by 2 points. Oh, and the game was at Wake. Oh, and that was the best win the ACC has had in the first two weeks of the season.
The conference has a few opportunities to save some face this weekend -- UNC plays at Rutgers on Thursday, UVa plays at UConn on Saturday, and Maryland plays Cal at home. Based on the ACC's early mediocrity, I should also note that Florida State plays Chattanooga at home.
Outside of Wake's two wins (Baylor and Ole Miss), the ACC's only wins have come against the following: Kent State, The Citadel, Western Carolina, Delaware, William & Mary, Richmond, Furman, James Madison, Charleston Southern, and McNeese State. The losses have come to Middle Tennessee State, East Carolina, and EVERY team we've played from a power conference (USC, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Northwestern). I wouldn't go as far as to say that Conference USA is better than the ACC, but the Mountain West Conference probably is. I am fairly confident that Utah, BYU, and Air Force would punish most of the teams in the ACC. I don't like the Mountain West Conference, but damnit I respect it.
I think Clemson is much better than they showed against Alabama. I still think they will overcome their tendency to choke in big games and win the ACC Championship, but then proceed to continue the ACC's losing streak in BCS games. My sleeper pick in the ACC (picking a sleeper pick in a conference as shitty as the ACC is like picking your favorite surprisingly good Lindsay Lohan movie -- ASIDE: "Parent Trap" is the only one that comes to mind and Lohan was 12) is Georgia Tech -- new coach Paul Johnson has them running the option and Nesbitt and Dwyer (QB and RB, respectively) have looked impressive. I predict they will win the Coastal Division of the ACC. They play Virginia Tech this weekend (good call redshirting Tyrod Taylor just for the ECU game) -- that early-season game may end up determining which team wins the division. I predict losing records for Duke, NC State, Virginia, Maryland, and Boston College. I realize these predictions could have been posted two weeks ago, but I wanted to get a preview of the ACC. So far, that preview has sucked.
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I hate to pour salt on an open wound, but not only is the ACC the weakest of the 6 BCS-tie-in Conferences, it is also the worst collection of places to tailgate and/or experience a college football game. The only places worth a damn are Miami, Boston, and Atlanta- and that is b/c of the city itself, not the schools therein. Can you even name an SEC, Big-10, PAC-10, or Big-12 school that wouldn't be a fun place to party?
Partly, I am still hot from having a terrible tailgating experience at Clemson (outside of the wild Citadel alum I met), and then having to face a crowd of AARP whiners that complained about my enthusiasm for 3rd Down conversion attempts. I can only assume that the campuses of Raliegh, Winston, Chapel Hill, Blacksburg, and wherever Maryland and Virginia are located, are all just as dismal.
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