Is Bowden Mount ACCMore material?
A reader suggested that Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden be guaranteed a slot on our Mount ACCMore - the mythical mountain dedicated to the four most influential people in Atlantic Coast Conference sports history.
For my part, I'm not so sure that Bowden is at all a lock.
I know that Bowden's teams have had a remarkable ACC run - 12 conference titles in 14 years.
The issue for me here is the 14-years thing - the ACC has been playing football for half a century now, and FSU has been a part of the league for about a quarter of that.
And though it can be argued that Bowden and Florida State raised the level of football played in the conference, it's not exactly as if the ACC was an also-ran before the Seminoles signed up. Clemson and Georgia Tech both won national titles in the 1980s and 1990s, and even former league doormat Virginia spent three weeks at the top of the national polls in 1990.
I think it could be argued that the arrival of FSU set the ACC back a few years, even, given how much the 'Noles dominated play in the '90s.
Indeed, it's only been since concerns about Bowden's age and the additions of Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech that ACC football has become competitive again.
So while Bowden is certainly a top candidate for a spot on Mount ACCMore, I think there is room for healthy debate.
I mean, we have to remember, we can only carve four heads on the rock up there.
- Chris Graham