Jacobs: ACC’s football championship and the road to a national title

The ACC championship game on Saturday, matching Clemson and North Carolina, is notable for more than football reasons, although there’s no denying this particular contest’s compelling competitive merits.

The official name of the game – The Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship – reflects its role as a lucrative marketing vehicle for the conference and its corporate affiliates, what with branding, TV and other considerations. Equally significant, the championship game should be viewed as a motivating factor for, and one of the relatively few competitive benefits of, the ACC’s mid-2000s expansion and all that’s followed.

By now it seems ancient history, but an obscure rule advanced by a Division II conference in Pennsylvania opened the door to a one-game playoff to decide its football championship. The proposed NCAA legislation first allowed a 14-member league to match its division winners in a title contest; the rule was amended to require only 12 teams in order to accommodate another interested DII league, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).

The rule was adopted in 1987. Soon major conference expansion began. Penn State went to the Big 10, Arkansas and South Carolina to the SEC, Florida State to the ACC. Grown to the requisite dozen, the SEC saw its chance, divided into two divisions and inaugurated a league championship match. That 1992 game, also sponsored by Dr Pepper, was an immediate success.

Years later, much as leagues once emulated the ACC’s basketball tournament, others began mimicking the SEC in football. The ACC recruited a pair of schools that were then football heavyweights, Miami and Virginia Tech, from the Big East. They joined in 2004. When Boston College was released from its Big East obligations in 2005, the ACC had 12 members, broke into the Atlantic and Coastal divisions, and staged its first football championship game in Jacksonville, Florida.

After three years the event moved to Tampa, where a Virginia Tech-BC matchup failed to fill seats. Disappointing attendance (versus reported ticket sales) wasn’t resolved until after the game came to Charlotte in 2010. This year’s announced sellout, matching opponents from the two Carolinas, befits the border city that blends both states.

But here’s a twist. Now that all the power conferences except the Big 12 have adopted championship games, that league and the ACC are pushing NCAA legislation to loosen requirements for hosting title contests.

Greater flexibility

The Big 12 arguably was penalized last year – its best teams left out of the inaugural College Football Playoff – by failing to give Baylor and TCU a chance to determine a clear conference champion. That doesn’t explain, however, why the ACC is sponsoring the alteration long after its horse is out of the barn.

“We said over and over again that doesn’t mean we would necessarily change anything within our own league,” commissioner John Swofford told ESPN.com’s Andrea Adelson in April. Swofford explained such a rule, which may go into effect in 2016, offered greater flexibility and conference autonomy, in keeping with the temper of the times. He denied it had anything to do with a speculated move to three divisions.

“I think the fact that we were supporting this in principle and felt it was the right route to go, it gives people the impression that we have a specific direction we would take things in in our league that’s different than what we’re currently doing,” Swofford said. “That’s just not the case.”

Regardless, the effect of the current 12-team minimum in demolishing the old, closeknit Atlantic Coast Conference already is more than a decade past. The more recent additions of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Louisville only ratified the league’s course, making its ocean-oriented name as nonsensical as that of the 10-member Big 12 or the Big 10 with its 14 schools.

As for the football championship, we can be certain that, barring dissolution, the conference will stick with an event that generates income and extends suspense and interest. Of course, should North Carolina win this weekend’s edition, feelings about the game might change among neutral parties.

Schedule strength

Sure, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee gives extra consideration to a conference champion. But, wishful thinking notwithstanding, even with a win over the Tigers the entertaining Tar Heels’ schedule strength (63rd-best, according to Jeff Sagarin’s ratings for USA Today) likely doesn’t merit top-four consideration compared to other worthies.

Clemson has been undefeated and tops in the committee’s rankings prior to facing UNC. It beat both Florida State and Notre Dame, teams more highly rated than the Heels or anyone they faced. Meanwhile, Big 12 champ Oklahoma appears to be a lock for the playoff, and its loss came against a lesser opponent than North Carolina. Ditto Alabama, should it finish off Florida for the SEC title.

Under the circumstances, the Tigers may still survive a loss and make the four-team national playoff. Then again, there simply isn’t enough precedent to knowledgeably predict which way the selection committee will lean. Last year TCU was ranked No. 3 entering the final weekend of regular-season play, crushed unranked Iowa State to clinch a spot as Big 12 co-champion – and dropped out of the playoff foursome.

Expect cries of alarm in and beyond the ACC if both Clemson and No. 8 Carolina, the conference’s highest-ranked teams, are both left out of the Football Bowl Subdivision playoff after following the presumed playbook for inclusion.

Worse, imagine if, with an FBS title to be had, the ACC sidelined No. 11 Clemson while unranked Georgia Tech played No. 10 Florida State for the ACC championship. That happened in 2012. Or, as the chips fell the next year, No. 8 Clemson watched as 23rd-ranked Duke took on top-rated FSU. In each of those earlier cases, the higher-ranked squad emerged victorious, averting what might now be disaster for the league.

But sooner or later, if the ACC is snubbed in the FBS playoff picture, some will argue for loosening divisional restraints in the interest of winning national titles. Then that pending NCAA rule granting added flexibility – perhaps allowing the ACC to match its strongest teams to pick a champ – might make sense.

Assuming football’s national leaders don’t take the easy route and go to an eight-team playoff, creating other problems to be grappled with another day.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Jacobs: ACC’s football championship and the road to a national title."