Keep an Eye on the Rear-View Mirror

By: Will Stewart | Founder

With four ACC championships and three near-misses in seven years of
membership, it’s easy to think of ACC titles as the Hokies’ birthright.
Preseason hype and buzz surrounding new starting QB Logan Thomas have done
nothing to dispel that notion for the 2011 season, but I find myself wondering:
are ACC sleeping Florida giants Miami and FSU about to catch the Hokies? Is life
in the ACC about to get a lot more interesting?

The expanded ACC hasn’t been what everyone expected, which is a fancy way of
saying, “FSU and Miami have sucked since 2004.” That may sound like
strong language, but the numbers back it up:

ACC
Regular Season
In-Conference Records Since Expansion
Team W L Pct.
Virginia Tech 46 10 82.1%
Georgia Tech 36 20 64.3%
Boston College 30 18 62.5%
Florida State 33 23 58.9%
Clemson 32 24 57.1%
Miami 30 26 53.6%
North Carolina 26 30 46.4%
Maryland 24 32 42.9%
Virginia 24 32 42.9%
Wake Forest 23 33 41.1%
NC State 22 34 39.3%
Duke 6 50 10.7%

We’ve all seen those records before, but it’s always good to look at them again.
The Hokies have won four of seven championships, and the other three have gone
to Florida State (2005), Wake Forest (2006) and Georgia Tech (2009). It’s not a
stretch to say that in seven years, a choke job against FSU in 2005 and two
losses to the Yellow Jackets are all that has kept the Hokies from seven
straight ACC championships.

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