Wake Forest-Georgia Tech Equivalent

Before nearly dropping dead today of heat exhaustion while mowing my lawn with the lamest mower in the history of grass (advisory: do not ever buy this piece of suck), I was thinking of how disappointing the 2006 ACC Championship Game was, and what little interest and buzz there was surrounding it.

My quickly melting brain then pondered....What would be the equivalent matchup in an SEC or Big 12 title game? A historical doormat vs. a traditionally good - but not consistently great - program? I thought of a few, but some of those still don't seem to equate, for two reasons: 1) while Wake Forest has been a traditional doormat, they've at least had a competitive pulse for much of the last 10 years, and there's another complete and total patsy in the conference (that would be Duke); 2) while Georgia Tech has an excellent football tradition, and has won a national title more recently than Auburn, Georgia, Penn State, and Notre Dame, they simply don't have the sex appeal, national following - and most importantly, rabid alumni base - that those powers have.

So, rather than let that thought melt away in the 97-degree Florida summer heat, I figured I'd still try to posit a few somewhat reasonable comparisons....mainly because I need to see this thought all the way through, and I really need to start posting more entries in this here blog.

SEC Equivalents
Vanderbilt vs. Ole Miss
Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas
Kentucky vs. Ole Miss
Kentucky vs. Arkansas

Georgia Tech really has no equivalent in the SEC East...Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have much larger followings and have been better programs over the last few decades. South Carolina has a better statewide following but comically less tradition, and Kentucky and Vanderbilt are, well, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. They have two general equivalents in the SEC West in Arkansas and Ole Miss, although it's fair to say that the Jackets have been better over the last decade or so than the Hogs or Rebels. Tech is not equivalent to Alabama, Auburn or LSU for obvious reasons, and is obviously better and more highly regarded than Mississippi State.

Wake Forest has two general equivalents in the SEC East in Vandy and Kentucky, although Kentucky has about eight times the enrollment and exponentially more alumni and following than the Deacs. Wake has one real equivalent in the the SEC West in Mississippi State, but again lacks the local appeal, but not necessarily the national appeal, of the Cowbell Nation.

Big 12 Equivalents
Baylor vs. Colorado
Baylor vs. Kansas State
Iowa State vs. Texas A&M

Big 12 North equivalent to Wake: Iowa State, purely based on winning percentage, certainly not local following. Big 12 South equivalent to Wake: Baylor...although Wake has been much, much better on the field the last several years, the type of school is as close to Wake as any other in any major conference.

Big 12 North equivalent to GT: Kansas State and Colorado (the Jackets' co-national champ in '90), and that's based only on the last 15-20 years. Nebraska has clearly been stronger historically, while Iowa State, Kansas and Missouri have been worse and less regarded than the Ramblin' Wreck. Big 12 South equivalent to GT: Texas A&M....again, not perfect, but close. A&M is still a bigger name nationally, but the Jackets have been better recently and have a similarly regarded history. Oklahoma and Texas are obviously better, while Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Baylor are worse to varying degrees.

Ehhhhhh. Maybe this wasn't such a great topic after all. Wake is too small a school in comparison to, well, nearly all 119 1-A programs, and Tech, while winning the national title in 1990, has been stuck in just-barely-sub-Top 25, Dec. 28-ish bowl status for the entire Dubya Bush administration.

That said, bashing the 2006 ACC Championship Game is perfectly fair, especially when you consider how poor a game it turned out to be. I'd sure as hell eviscerate a 9-6 snoozer between Kansas State and Baylor in a half-empty stadium in St. Louis, wouldn't you?


This SEC Championship Game, sponsored by Lame-O

Coming Soon....

Now that our beloved football season is rapidly approaching, please stop by for these upcoming features:

--reasonably in-depth previews of each ACC club (starting next week)

--my commentary on the State of ACC Football

--the return of miscellaneous snarky posts regarding the college football world in general

Wow, 2 posts this week! I'm back, baby!

The Blog Formerly Known as "Atlantic Coast Chronicles"

Howdy folks. If you happened to stumble upon this blog lately, you've noticed the name change. I came to realize "Atlantic Coast Chronicles" is a bit too broad and generic of a title....it actually kind of sounds like a hoity-toity upscale lifestyle magazine you'd find along the Florida, North Carolina and Maryland shorelines. And since my focus was quite clearly on ACC football, I felt that a title that encompassed the entire Chronicles of the Atlantic Coast was a tad overreaching.

And yes "ACC Football Report" certainly lacks panache, but oh well. It describes the focus of the blog quite clearly, and frankly I didn't have the energy to think of something witty. So there you have it.

Happy 4th!

"A tragedy of monumental proportions"

What a horrific day in Blacksburg. Thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, and all who are affected by today's massacre at Virginia Tech.

If you wish to do so, leave your condolences and best wishes at these two fine Hokie blogs:

Blacksburg Beacon
Tech Superfans

Still Alive

Call it blogger's overload. Call it an extended decompression. Whatever you want to call it, I needed a break from covering the world of ACC and college football for awhile. Which makes me seem all the more pathetic when compared to the likes of SMQ or Brian at MGoBlog. Do these guys have real jobs too?

Anyway, look for a weekly post or two from now on until the 2007 season hits us, when I might actually kick it up to three a week. And a big thank you if you're actually reading this, since I haven't given you any reason to keep coming back here lately.


I needed a friggin' break

Super Bowl XLI Thoughts

As a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan, I have the utmost respect and admiration for Tony Dungy. Coach Dungy was truly a victim of his own success here in Tampa, helping to raise a franchise from the dead (with able help from GM Rich McKay and the loose purse-strings of the Glazer family), only to hit a wall every year come playoff time. From 2002 through 2005, we saw much of those same collapses by his Colts in the playoffs, adding more and more weight to that proverbial monkey on his back. Nonetheless, all those shortcomings in crunch time never diminshed the respect folks around here had, and continue to have, for the guy we simply call "Tony".

During his six year stint in Tampa Bay, Dungy ingratiated himself into the community like very few professional coaches do, and did so to the extent that he is still revered here and still lives here during the offseason. He sings in the choir here at a local church. His son is buried here. It's a very unique situation, this love-affair a city has with a long departed football coach that never won a championship, and who was let go without much debate.

I write this because I want to leave no doubt that I will be rooting for the Indianapolis Colts tomorrow, almost as if my own Buccaneers were taking the field. That's the kind of grip the mild mannered Dungy has in the Tampa area. It's the kind of grip Jon Gruden has never had, despite winning the Super Bowl in his first year here. On the field, sure, Tony's teams left a lot to be desired in crunch time. Off the field, the man has no peer, no equal, in any professional sport.

All that aside, look for Dungy (and the also previously much-maligned-in-crunch-time Peyton Manning) to stampede over the Chicago Bears on Sunday evening. Dungy, Manning and the Colts are a different team now. They finally got past that hurdle that had always tripped them up in the past, the New England Patriots, and did so in a way that required the ultimate gut-check -- coming back from an enormous deficit on the scoreboard. All that weight that Dungy, Manning and the Colts have carried is gone....and they'll play looser and crisper because of it. And it also helps that they are facing the worst quarterback to ever start in a Super Bowl.

Indianapolis 31, Chicago 14


Nice guys really can finish first