Keeping up with the Coastalashians

The Atlantic division of the ACC can be summed up pretty succintly:

Clemson.

Aside from an unsuccessful bout with the dangerous Georgia Tech, Clemson has really dominated most of its ACC competition.  Frankly, its not very interesting to talk about.  With Florida State dropping two games in conference play (and I expect a third is on the way, but more on that later), the Seminoles gift wrapped the inside track to the conference title game and gave it to Clemson in a rather bottom-heavy division:

+Maryland- It was cute when people thought Danny O'Brien was the best quarterback in the ACC in the preseason.  Now though... it's just gotten kind of sad.

+NC State- After 11 weeks, they're 5-5.  Their last two games are against Maryland and Clemson.  After a bowl win over West Virginia last year, it's pretty feasible that the wolfpack doesn't even qualify for a bowl one year later.  Is this what happens when Russell Wilson leaves your program for a state whose biggest upside is belt-centric touchdown dances and lots of cheese?

+Boston College- Hasn't been relevant since Matt Ryan.

+Wake Forest- Wait, they have a football program?  All kidding aside, Wake is probably the best of these four... but it's not saying much.  The DD's actually don't own an out of conference win against an FBS school on any level.  So color me unimpressed.


This is the division that Clemson has run through.  Not a lot of excitement here, especially when you consider that Clemson has already clinched the title berth.  So instead, today we are going to look at the Coastal division of the ACC- a race that is not quite as decided.


Virginia Tech- The hokies being in the title hunt is nothing new.  So I will spare you an elaborate team introduction and point out that, against bowl-qualified competition (ie teams that have qualified for a postseason berth by winning six games), Virginia Tech is 1-1.  This is a telling statistic in a couple of ways.  First of all prior to four days ago, VT was 0-1; they got their first quality win on the road against Georgia Tech last Thursday.  The loss came in early October at home against Clemson.  That's really all I can say that matters about Tech, all their other games have come against ACC pretenders, conference USA schools, or FCS teams.  You really just have to go with a gut feeling on Tech, and my gut tells me that they are physically gifted but not disciplined or schematically unique enough to keep up with top-tier talent.  Most imporantly, my intuition SCREAMS that, at #8 in the BCS, Tech is wayyyyyy way way way overrated.  But before we start talking about BCS games, we need to talk about winning the ACC championship.  And for Tech to get there, they have to beat...


Virginia- Former U of R coach Mike London hasnt turned them into a powerhouse quite yet, but the Cavaliers are well over .500 and probably on their way to a bowl game.  Before the postseason though, UVA will face Virginia Tech in a monster regular season finale in Charlottesville that has huge implications every which way.  To start with, if UVA can keep pace with Virginia Tech for one more week, UVA could win the Coastal division on the head to head tiebreaker with a win over Virginia Tech two weeks from now.  UVA hasn't beaten Virginia Tech in who knows how long (pretty sure it's over 10 years now) but if you recall some of my preseason predictions from this year, I did think that UVA and Virginia Tech would have close records by the end of the year.  Now, here comes the second half of that prediction:  The Cavaliers will beat Virginia Tech during rivalry week and play in the ACC championship game.  They've got to win at Florida State to have a shot at stealing the bid from Tech (unless the hokies drop their home game to UNC this Thursday, which is unlikely).  But the Cavs are really hitting their stride and playing with some tenaciousness for the first time in about five years.  I think they upset both ranked programs and take their spot in the sun.  UVA fans will rub it in the faces of Tech fans; Tech fans will ask UVA fans how many years it's been since the Cavs have been relevant.  In the end, isn't the return of a viable college football rivalry to Virginia what really matters?


Check out my Big East breakdown right here tomorrow.  Bring your calculators and your bibs.  There's gonna be math... and it's gonna be messy.