How bad is ACC football?

You hear it every Saturday (and most Thursday’s) during the college football season. The ACC is “down”. The ACC is terrible. The ACC should not have an automatic berth in the BCS. On and on and on by the talking heads.

While I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the ACC doesn’t have an elite team (or two), I would also argue that the ACC isn’t as bad as some would lead you to believe.

Here are some facts that lend credence to my point:

(1) The ACC is 6-4 against the vaunted SEC in head to head matchups (2 more coming up in bowl games).

(2) The ACC is 4-0 against the Big 12 in head to head matchups (1 more coming in the Gator Bowl).

(3) The ACC is ranked #1 in the Sagarin ratings.

(4) The ACC has 10 teams (of 12) in bowl games.

(5) The ACC had 20 former players selected to the Pro Bowl this year vs. 13 for the SEC, 8 for the Big 12 and 7 for the Big 10.

(6) Over the past three years the ACC has had 25 first round selections in the NFL draft, more than any other conference and the ACC’s 115 draft picks overall is also first among conferences.

(7) In the past 3 years an ACC defensive player has been the first defensive player selected in the NFL draft.

While I’m not suggesting that Virginia Tech or Boston College would whip Oklahoma and Texas on a regular basis, I am suggesting that the hype that surrounds the Big 12 and SEC has more to do with television dollars than the quality of football and football players in the conferences.

The two worst ACC teams had 4 (Duke) and 5 (Virginia) wins respectively. Meanwhile, the Big 12 had 5 teams with losing records, the Big 10 and SEC had 4.

What it suggests to me is that these leagues (especially the Big 12) are top heavy as opposed to the “parity” of the ACC. The Big 12 has 5 teams in the AP poll, but they also have 5 teams with losing records. Conversely, while the ACC only has two teams in the AP top 25, it also only has two teams with losing records.

Last time I looked Iowa State, Texas A&M and Baylor were still in the Big 12, but you wouldn’t know that listening to the “Big 12 is the best conference” crowd. For their purposes the Big 12 membership stops at 5 and these three teams are the never talked about step-children in the group home or “institution”.

Often times when you hear an announcer or color analyst praising one conference and bashing another it relates directly to what TV or radio contract a particular conference is tied to. For example, expect to hear ESPN heap more praises (if that's possible) on the SEC in the future as the network begins broadcasting SEC games.