It must be nice to play in the ACC … not only do you get the visual relief of good ole’ God-fearin’ Southern gals (well, unless you play for Boston College), but winning your conference championship guarantees you a spot in the lucrative Bowl Championship Series.
Plus, instead of playing against teams like Alabama, Florida, Georgia or LSU every week, you get to go up against Duke, N.C. State, Maryland and … let’s be honest … Clemson.
Sure the ACC produces a decent team or two each year, but look at how even the mighty Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes have faded into relative mediocrity after being exposed to ACC “competition.”
Seriously, people … the Noles and Canes owned the college game during the eighties and early nineties, but both programs are now flirting with “second-tier power” status … as is once-proud Virginia Tech.
Of course, being an “Anybody Can Compete” team is apparently becoming quite the draw for both up-and-coming coaching prospects as well as seasoned, big-name head coaches.
Take North Carolina’s Butch Davis, for example.
Here’s an excerpt from a speech Davis’ agent, Jimmy Sexton, gave the other day.
From the Birmingham News:
“I think Butch Davis will be at North Carolina for a long time,” Sexton said during Monday’s speech to the Birmingham Touchdown Club. “I don’t know that. He’ll have to make that decision.
“I do think that’s a place you can win at, and the ACC isn’t nearly as hard, at least right now, as the SEC.”
Few people know what college football coaches are thinking as well as Sexton. He represents five head coaches in the SEC alone in Nick Saban, Tommy Tuberville, Phillip Fulmer, Houston Nutt and Steve Spurrier.
Sexton is starting to hear that coaches across the country don’t necessarily want to bang heads with those guys on a daily basis.
As he said, “They look at it as, `Why do I want to go do that? If my school will pay me an SEC-type salary in another conference, I might be able to stay here forever.’”
Davis is a perfect example. He’s a former Arkansas player, but when that job opened after last season, he showed no interest in leaving North Carolina after one year to coach the Hogs.
Of course he showed “no interest.” With the exception of Georgia’s Mark Richt, LSU’s Les Miles, Florida’s Urban Meyer and Alabama’s Nick Saban, the SEC is no place to try to start – or try to finish – a career.
Just ask Steve Spurrier …
By reggie October 29, 2008 at 3:54 pm
hey, maybe your mediocre gamecocks can swap with my beloved, 15th in the bcs, ‘noles and see whose more mediocre. i would be you that FSU would have a better SEC-record than USC.
By Jason Puhlasky October 29, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Will FSU won the national title in 98 played for it in 99 Miami won it in 2001 and played for it in 2003. Where do you come up with this early 90′s crap. It was Clemson who faded from a perinial top 10 team to obscurity in the early 90′s.
By reggie October 29, 2008 at 9:41 pm
he’s reffering to the life and times of the great charlie ward. That was when us ‘noles were at our prime. Remember that anquan boldin came from FSU and randy moss was there for awhile. You also can’t forget about warrick dunn, who rushed for 1000 yards, or peter warrick, or the great deion sanders. The list goes on and on. I yeah, we took the national championship back in 93. Wise up :p
By j October 30, 2008 at 7:19 am
do you really think the gamecocks would have it easy in the acc. they still can’t beat a top team in the sec much less an fsu
By Mike October 30, 2008 at 11:39 am
Bring FSU in the SEC and see if they wouldn’t be at or below the Gamecocks level. The ACC is a joke and has been since before FSU even joined the league.
By chassuz October 30, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I love this ACC vs. SEC thing that Gamecocks cannot stop focusing on. Does Clemson usually beat Carolina? Yes. End of story.
By reggie October 30, 2008 at 7:50 pm
FSU would be able to beat any SEC team excluding UGA, LSU, and Bamma. I believe we could beat LSU if it’s at doak campbell and we would pimp smack the crap out of carolina. I will admit, the SEC is good, but that doesn’t automaticly make Carolina any better. Maryland isn’t a bad team this year, or duke, or GT, or VT. But the ACC went down after Miami and VT showed up. See you at the orange bowl suckahs :p
By montassar December 20, 2008 at 11:07 pm
live