ACC roundtable #3

Time once again for the ACC roundtable. Sort of a shorter post today, I'm busy working on something interesting for tomorrow evening. The roundtable questions are brought to you from the boys of Block-C, the roundtable's Clemson delegation.

1) Does this weekends OOC performance for the ACC negate that first weekend's total bed shitting performance? Why or why not?

At best we took small steps in that direction, but for all the wrong reasons. "National perception" has this absurd idea that for the ACC to be considered a good conference, it has to have a dominant team, and that dominant team has to play in the state of Florida. Enter Miami, after looking like that dominant team two weeks in a row.

Nothing else did any good. TFSU smokes BYU and: "well, maybe the MWC isn't so hot after all." (In fact, the MWC's OOC "performance" probably did more for the ACC's reputation than our own teams did.) VT scrapes by Nebraska and most people are thinking, "Yeah, but their offense still sucks." (Even the Techies themselves.) And it's not like there wasn't some bed-shitting going on anyway, what with Maryland proving themselves chronically incapable of handling MTSU.

However, comma. The national media may say one thing about the ACC (can't beat the CAA hur), but their voting hand says something else entirely. You will note the only other conferences with more ranked teams this week are the Big 12 and SEC. So.

2) Continuing the weekly theme of predicting the conference outcome, who'll play in the ACC CG?

I haven't seen any reason to change my Atlantic prediction of Florida State yet. Unfortunately, I appear to have severely underestimated Miami. If GT had even held it close against the Canes I'd stay firm in my GT prediction, but Miami looks like the team to beat these days. Which sucks and here's why: the conference's wet dream of a Miami-FSU ACCCG would come true and convince the conference bosses to keep the CG in Florida forevermore instead of a geographically sensible location like Charlotte.

3) Is Miami a legit top ten team? Why or why not?

Legit top ten nothing. They have enough of a shot at the actual national title game to be scary. If Miami can bottle up Georgia Tech's offense then they can stop VT's, too. And if Sam Bradford's not healthy in two weeks when OU comes to town.....

The only reason that they should fall out of the top ten is losing both games. After that their schedule lightens way up and they'll be favored in every one, often by at least two touchdowns. You can only judge teams on what you've seen, and right now we've seen enough out of Miami to call them an outside national title contender, let alone top ten.

4) If you had to declare an ACC MVP right now, who's your top guy?

Gotta go with Jacory Harris. How there was ever a controversy between him and Robert Marve was at best inexplicable last year and this year, thoroughly flabbergasting.

5) Women, whiskey, and miles of travelin' is all that I understand. What are three things you understand, blogger friends?

1. I understand that the Al Groh era is coming to a sad conclusion.
2. I understand that the epic BC-UVA clash on November 14 is going to be charitably called a "defensive struggle" and more accurately defined as an "offensive suckhole" unless one or the other straightens out their shit.
3. I understand there are other sports besides football. This is important to remember when you're a UVA fan.