Boise State pointed to Virginia Tech. Ohio State circled the Miami game on the schedule. Oklahoma put it's home winning streak on the line against a real test in Florida State. What have we learned after two weeks of college football? The ACC is not a power conference. At all. Stop building it up. It's as counterfeit as Taco Bell selling shrimp.
Let's start with Virginia Tech. Boise State, from the WAC, needed a signature win outside of conference and scheduled a 'neutral' site game with Virginia Tech in Washington D.C. Which is less than 300 miles from the Hokies campus. So yeah, it was pretty much a home game for Va-Tech. With no real threats to give them a sexy win in their conference, Boise State fans were talking up Virginia Tech like the Hokies were the second coming. "Virginia Tech's ranked number 10 in the country. This will show everyone we belong on the big stage." Or so the argument began.
Problem with that logic, preseason rankings in college football are just educated guesses. Nothing for the voters to go by as far as on the field results. Sometimes teams pan out and other times they prove to be Virginia Tech. The Hokies played an impressive game in losing to Boise State and followed that up by losing to always the dangerous James Madison (yes that's sarcasm for the non-sports lover). Sorry Boise, your big win just got marked down from "they can beat any team anywhere", to you struggled with this team? Virginia Tech was the highest ranked ACC team before the season began, and they still may be by the end of the season. There lies the problem. We'll get back to that.
Ohio State and Miami. A rematch of the national title game from 2002. Yeah I'm sure that game meant something to this version of the Buckeyes and Hurricanes. The kids that were on the field today were in middle school 8 years ago, so the rematch talk was just a tad overblown. As was the hype insisting that "The U" is back, Public Enemy told you 'don't believe the hype' a long time ago. Outside of a punt return for a touchdown and a kickoff return for a touchdown this game would not have been close. Ohio State's defense forced Miami quarterback Jacory Harris into 4 interceptions. That should eliminate any Heisman whispers from 'Cane country. Buckeye quarterback Terrelle Pryor had his way with the Miami's defense. 346 total yards and 2 touchdowns. (So much for that big quarterback showdown) Ohio State thoroughly outclassed Miami. Which is what a good team from a good conference should do against a team from an inferior conference. Promise we're going to hammer home this point in a moment.
But first Florida State and Oklahoma. 47-14. Look at that again. 47-14!!!! The people in Tallahassee pushed Bobby Bowden out for this? The Seminoles, like Miami, are in the midst of putting their program back on the map. At least that what ACC supporters would have you believe. Florida State was down 27-7 before all the kids had arrived from tailgating. And this is supposed to be one of the top 3 teams in the ACC?
Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech will make their cases about how elite their conference is when they start playing each other in ACC games. They deserve to be on the same field, not being litmus tests for teams looking to make statements. For all the talk about how tough the ACC can be, two weeks of inter- conference games should shine some light on everyone's thinking. Football's national title does not go through a basketball conference.
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