Allow me to rant about the BCS and the ACC's role

I love college football but I really hate the current BCS and bowl system. There are a million reasons to dislike it but my major gripe is that there are now only 12 teams eligible for the national championship and they all happen to be in the SEC. Heck, Alabama showed tonight that you don't even have to win the SEC to win a national championship. This isn't me hating the SEC due to an ACC inferiority complex. It is me hating on a system that is not decided on the field and where one conference is now benefiting from money, marketing and media hype. It would be like the World Series was only decided between the Red Sox and Yankees every year. I want a playoff. I want home playoff games and I want automatic qualifiers from all the major conferences. If we keep this slow march towards a "plus 1" and keeping the bowls and allowing six or seven SEC teams in BCS games, then most of the ACC will be squeezed out. College football will only be a power group of 40 or so schools. We need a playoff and the ACC needs to lead the charge. The conference needs to do it for the money and do it for the survival of the other 120 schools playing FBS (DIA) football.

The ACC could lead the change but we have gutless apologizing leadership. The conference, its coaches and its media members are constantly defending ACC football. Who cares? We don't oversign like the SEC teams. We have more admission restrictions. Of course our football will suffer a bit. Because we are not a collection of tradition football powers and because we have a group of private schools, we will never travel as well to bowl games. I know all the ACC teams got rolled in bowl games, but once again it doesn't matter. The bowl games are quirky neutral site games after long layoffs. If we had a real playoff, I am sure a hot ACC team would make a run on occasion.

Instead our leaders sit by and allow ESPN to prop up the bowl system and the SEC to be the primary beneficiary simply because they deliver ratings and hype. The regular season doesn't matter. Alabama just proved that. History doesn't matter or else they wouldn't have ruined the bowls. Academics don't matter or else SEC's would try to graduate their players. Cheating doesn't even matter. Look at the slap on the wrist Ohio State got. So we ignore all these issues to keep the old boy network of bowl reps, coaches and ADs protected. Having 70 teams in bowls helps perception. Having say 16 playoff teams would ratchet up the pressure on coaches and ADs.

The ACC could lead for change. We could work with the other schools to get a playoff. We could lead by example and it would mean more money and a better chance at championships. Instead our gutless leaders will sit back and watch Alabama and LSU play for another title next year.

Criticism of ACC misguided

Since it started College Football's current shakeup in 2003, the ACC has been battling backlash from the media and the college football landscape. I imagine it was driven in part by the media narrative at the time that the "ACC was going to challenge the SEC" for college dominance. It hasn't happened obviously. But because of that, there is a general defensiveness among ACC fans, teams and ACC media. There is a recurring theme about "what the ACC can do" which I just don't understand. It talks about a second BCS team or Heisman hype, but none of that really matters. All that does matter is the primary point -- the ACC needs to produce a National Champion. Everything else is fluff.

The ACC hasn't produced a champion for a variety of reasons. Most point to parity. I would also point out bad coaching at the programs most positioned to compete on a national level (FSU, Miami, Clemson). Virginia Tech has carried the torch for the conference, but usually have mediocre offense -- which hurts their overall record and the ability to deliver in the BCS. But there is nothing the conference "can do" to help things. Even if the middle of the pack rolled over against the big boys, the non-conference foes won't comply. It is now just a matter of someone stepping up and the ACC ignoring the criticism. No one seems to mention the Pac 12, Big 12 nor Big Ten hasn't produced a national champion in six years. Why should we be so thin skinned?

The ACC will produce a champion again. But to do so, we have to stop thinking like a conference and hope that the individual teams step up.