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Dr. Saturday

Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:32 pm EST

Virginians are too frugal for the ACC Championship's own good

By Matt Hinton

First of all, I'm going to say something very nice about the ACC, since everyone's had so much fun the last two years beating up on it: As a reader e-mailed me Sunday following the conference's 3-1 weekend vs. the SEC, the ACC is 15-7 in non-conference "Big 6" games (plus Notre Dame) for the season, by far the best inter-league record among the "power conferences." The Big East is next at 9-7, followed by the Big 12 at 7-6. The Big Ten is 6-7; the Pac-10 and SEC are each 6-8. If you took all of the major conferences, ranked the teams from top to bottom in each conference and played them against each other (1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, etc.), the ACC would probably lose the games between the elite teams but win the overall series every time.

I make that point because, though Saturday's ACC Championship -- while not featuring the league's most impressive and highest-ranked team at the end of the regular season, Georgia Tech -- should be a solid, hard fought rematch between two well-coached teams that repeated as division champions despite suffering massive attrition from last year's championship efforts, alas, the theme remains ...

I had no intention of breaking out that picture again this week, but the Roanoke Times looks at Virginia Tech's travel potential today, and with the economy and the extra two-and-a-half hours on the drive to Tampa and whatnot, it might be even uglier than last year:

There could be plenty of empty seats at Raymond James Stadium when Virginia Tech and Boston College square off for the ACC title Saturday.

Tech was obligated to pay the Tampa Bay Sports Commission for 10,000 tickets to the game but has only sold about 3,000 of them.

Virginia Tech assistant athletic director Sandy Smith said Tuesday that ticket sales have been slower than last year, when the game was held in Jacksonville, Fla.

Sales "are not as good as we would like," Smith said. "All the ticket people throughout the conference looked at it -- even the ones [at schools] in Florida -- as being, because of the economy, a tough sell."

Many Tech fans interviewed at last weekend's win over Virginia said they would not be attending the title game in Tampa and would instead save their money for the upcoming bowl game.

"The economy's too bad," Bob Rue of Richmond said. "Bowl games are more fun -- a lot more stuff to do."

Tech stands to lose even more than the $203,000 it ate on unsold tickets for last year's game. Meanwhile, Boston College is giving away tickets to students for a chance to witness what Bill, aka dedicated BC blogger "ATL Eagle," calls "BC's most important win in 60 years." Think about the horrible, cubicle-filled life in front of you, kids, and know that you will never regret this trip.

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  1. guantanamo_blues
    1. Posted by guantanamo_blues Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:14 pm EDT

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    I need a deal on an mp3 player online, 4 GB or so, anyone got a link? Poor terps.
  2. willwc
    2. Posted by willwc Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:48 pm EDT

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    Once again, the ACC is going to feel the sting of the brilliant decision to host the championship game as far away as possible from 10 of the 12 member schools. This game can't get to Charlotte fast enough.
    I sure hope the conference tells Goodyear/MetLife/whoever to leave the blimp in the hangar this year...
  3. Vince Regan
    3. Posted by Vince Regan Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:38 pm EDT

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    a forgotten detail is that last year many bc fans came dressed in blue seat costumes.
    also, we were talking about the acc in the office the other day, wondering if the acc is really just beating up its conference mates to .500 records like sec used to - perhaps it is a more robust league than we realize just looking at w/l..
  4. John V
    4. Posted by John V Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:26 pm EDT

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    haha@ the blue seat costumes
    I think its worth pointing out that 10 out of 12 ACC teams are bowl eligible (everyone but duke and virginia). I'm not going to suggest that the top 3 ACC teams are better than the top 3 big 12 teams, because that would be foolish. But I'd like to note that sub 500 teams make up ~17% of the ACC, ~33% of the SEC and ~42% of the Big 12. And 50% of the PAC10.
    Also I'd be remiss if I didn't include that if VT wins the ACC championship, they'll probably go lay another egg in a BCS bowl. Because they like to anger me.
  5. Mike
    5. Posted by Mike Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:24 pm EDT

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    ....while the percentage of teams winning 75% of their games are: Big 12-42%, SEC-25%, ACC-17%, Big 10-37%, PAC 10-20%.
  6. John V
    6. Posted by John V Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:26 pm EDT

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    Well of course the big12 and SEC are gonna have lots of teams win 75% of their games since so much of their conference consists of bottom dwellers :P
  7. mangere_bridge
    7. Posted by mangere_bridge Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:12 pm EDT

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    An amazing stat: ACC teams have won 50% of their conference games. That's exactly the same as in the SEC!
  8. Jeff
    8. Posted by Jeff Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:32 pm EDT

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    mangere_bridge.
    I see what you did there...
  9. Johnson
    9. Posted by Johnson Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:14 pm EDT

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    Well lets be honest, who wants to pay all that money and travel across half the Atlantic Coast to watch two semi-decent teams go at it? If both Tech and Boston College had better records, their fans would probably show up in greater numbers. I live in Virginia, and if I was a Tech fan (I am Ohio State btw) I would go regardless of the records because I love college football. I also like to get good seats which doesn't seem to difficult looking at the picture above. But, with the economy being so bad... I'd probably be just as content to watch it on TV.
  10. college fan
    10. Posted by college fan Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:06 pm EDT

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    Perhaps they should play the SEC game on the jumbotron to attract fans who can't get tickets for the game in Atlanta. I don't understand the placement of the championship game. Should be between DC, Charlotte, and Atlanta.
  11. Prince Clairvoyance
    11. Posted by Prince Clairvoyance Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:33 pm EDT

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    What do you expect from a conference that adds BC, a college that's 500 miles away from everyone else. They couldn't add South Florida or WVU instead? They deserve to suffer. Let them suffer.
  12. joby
    12. Posted by joby Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:45 pm EDT

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    Put the ACC title game in Charlotte!
  13. frodisman
    13. Posted by frodisman Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:03 pm EDT

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    I'm an ACC fan but Charlotte won't attract anymore fans than Tampa.
  14. japfeiffermd
    14. Posted by japfeiffermd Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:28 pm EDT

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    I suppose the ACC could have added USF and WVU, but obviously they preferred to add schools more consistent with their academic standards instead.
  15. JB
    15. Posted by JB Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:18 pm EDT

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    Sat, Sep 6 Cincinnati W 52-26 -- Sat, Sep 13 at Washington W 55-14 -- Sat, Sep 27 (24) TCU W 35-10 -- Sat, Oct 4 at Baylor W 49-17 -- Sat, Oct 11 (5) Texas L 35-45 -- Sat, Oct 18 (16) Kansas W 45-31 -- Sat, Oct 25 at Kansas State W 58-35 -- Sat, Nov 1 Nebraska W 62-28 -- Sat, Nov 8 at Texas A&M W 66-28 -- Sat, Nov 22 (2) Texas Tech W 65-21 -- Sat, Nov 29 at (11) Oklahoma State W 61-41 -- Sat, Dec 6 (19) Missouri 8:00 pm
  16. change_of_pace2
    16. Posted by change_of_pace2 Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:21 pm EDT

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    Your argument implies two objectively unassailable points rarely made in the normally subjective claims ranking the football conferences:
    1. Such arguments depend on what criteria are used to rank the conferences.
    All too often that seems to depend on where teams in each are in the subjectively determined polls rather than a top to bottom comparison of each league's teams (1 v 1, 2 v 2, 3 v3, n v n);
    2. The objective won-lost record of a conference with the other five BCS conferences is more persuasive indication of a conference's relative strength than the subjective argument often made by some that this or that conference is so strong that "beats each other up" in conference play and thus has worse overall records; by definition, teams in every conference average .500. Interestingly, the conferences with the two best records in intra BCS competition are the ACC (15-7) and BE (9-7), those subjectively ranked 6 and 5 by most. The SEC, whose fans are among the most vocal with conclusory rhetoric that it is the strongest is objectively dead last (6-8).
    There is a third point in these data which your article does not make in relief: the two conferences which lead in the arguments over which is the strongest this year, the B12 and SEC, have been the most pusilanimous in scheduling other BCS teams. The BE and ACC have been the most courageous - almost doubly so. W L Total Teams Mean
    BE 9 7 16 8 2
    ACC 15 7 22 12 1.83333333333333
    P10 6 8 14 10 1.4
    B10 6 7 13 11 1.18181818181818
    SEC 6 8 14 12 1.16666666666667
    B12 7 6 13 12 1.08333333333333
    This year is not an aberration. Earlier I posted an analysis of the BCS conference out-of-conference scheduling over the past three years and the SEC was at the bottom.
    In that posting I suggested that from an artistic standpoint, it would be nice if conferences did contract to have their respectively finishing teams from the previous year play each other (1 v 1, 2 v 2, 3 v3, n v n) this year. I saw no objections to the proposal, but of course it was not invented internally in one of the six.
  17. MorrisD
    17. Posted by MorrisD Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:26 pm EDT

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    The ACC spread themselves too thin geographically when they added Boston College AND Miami. In this economy it makes no sense for the average football fan to travel all the way to Tampa and then a matter of weeks later travel another 1,000 miles to a bowl game. I doubt it would bother any fan if the ACC didn't have a Championship game. The PAC 10 and Big Ten don't have one and I don't see those fans whining about it.
  18. jjg1576
    18. Posted by jjg1576 Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:34 pm EDT

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    I wonder why we haven't seen more "SEC is overrated" articles this year. There are really only 2 strong teams in the league- Alabama and Florida. It seems that every year ESPN just gives the SEC the title of best conference before the games begin and everyone is afraid to say anything negative about the league. I guess the bowl games will give us a better idea of which teams/conferences are legit and which are just hype.
  19. Cowboy
    19. Posted by Cowboy Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:38 pm EDT

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    In the ACC, there is a strong probability that the two teams will have already played during the season, thus diminishing the importance of the game. Also, in the ACC, there just aren't the historic rivalries as exist in the SEC.
    If the ACC wants the championship game to be better attended, it should be moved to Charlotte where more fans could get to the game without spending a fortune on airfare. The only reason it's in Florida is the ACC thought FSU or Miami would always be one of the participants.
  20. quincy1775
    20. Posted by quincy1775 Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:24 pm EDT

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    I'm guessing that the ACC folks figured that Florida State and Miami would be the top 2 teams most years so they wanted the championship to be in Florida. Surpsie Surprise. Florida State made it in 2005 to play VT, but then it was Wake Forest and GT, then BC and VT, and BC vs VT again this year. The power center of ACC football is much farhter up the coast, and the championship game ought to be held closer to the majority of the schools for logistical reasons. Having the game in Charlotte would keep the longest drive to 10-12 hours for BC and Miami, with every other school no further than 8 hours away (FSU). That makes the hassle and expense of going to the ACC game much less of a problem, although the weather certainly won't be nearly as nice. But it's embarassing to see a 2/3 empty stadium for a league championship. Maybe it will be better attended if/when they move it.
  21. Steven
    21. Posted by Steven Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:11 pm EDT

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    They should just play it at the stadium of one of the division winners. Either rotate it each year between the divisions, play at the higher seeded team, or somehow let interdivisional records decide it. If your division has a better record against the other division, you get the home game. I bet at least 80% of the each fanbase has to decide between traveling to the championship game or the bowl game each year. It is major $$$ to travel. Empty stadiums aren't good for anybody.
  22. cie247
    22. Posted by cie247 Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:25 pm EDT

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    the attendance issue will certainly change (for the better) once the game moves to charlotte. as for the conference as a whole, swofford and the boys have got to do a better job of raising the national prominence. there's no reason why the acc shouldn't be in the running for two bcs games annually.
    i think the teams are doing their job with competitive play on the field.
  23. LaMario C
    23. Posted by LaMario C Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:56 pm EDT

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    I guess the next location for the ACC Championship game is going to be in Miami since they continue to move it away from Traditional ACC teams. I look at the state of North Carolina as the home to the ACC and the center of the ACC which would make it more fitting for the championship game to be in Charlotte. Atlanta is the second best location but we all know that the SEC got them first. The ACC seems to be so bent on FSU and Miami being the premier teams in the league that everything related to football in the conference is based on two teams. Instead of putting them in the same division and playing a north and south, they were split up so that they could play in every championship game. FSU only played in one so far and Miami ZERO. But still they want to continue to move the Championship game deeper into Florida hoping that one day the two powers can play in the game and generate the fanfare and wealth the game was designed to. Well it's seeming like the choices of 2003 have backfired on Mr Swofford and ACC football in looking like a joke to the other Big 6 conferences.
  24. Johnson
    24. Posted by Johnson Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:14 pm EDT

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    At least it's not the BIG XII championship where you have the #2 team in the league playing the #5 team in the league.
  25. Ray B
    25. Posted by Ray B Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:07 pm EDT

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    An ACC title game in our Nations Capital or Baltimore would draw a larger crowd than Tampa.

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