Swofford addresses talk of down year for ACC football
Losses to teams from the Mid-American Conference, Conference USA and several noteworthy nonconference near-misses have many observers wondering aloud if Atlantic Coast Conference football is in the midst of a down year.
ACC commissioner John Swofford feels the jury is still out as far as that is concerned.
"There's a lot of football yet to be played and our championship game and bowl games. A lot of things can happen," Swofford told "ACC Nation" at the ACC Operation Basketball media event held recently in Greensboro, N.C.
"In a lot of ways, I think we're seeing what we thought we would see when we went to a 12-team league - that there's a lot of competitiveness and a lot of parity within the league," Swofford said.
Parity has been the key word this fall - with surprises like Wake Forest and Boston College at the top of the league standings and powers Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech struggling to retain their spots atop the conference ladder.
"I think what has surprised people this year, and understandably so, is that at least at this given point in time, Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech are not in the rankings. And that's unusual in and of itself," Swofford said.
"We're going to have to let it play itself out. The oddity is that those three teams that you just expect to be in the top 25 almost because they've been there so long aren't there at the moment. But I suspect they'll be back in relatively short order," Swofford said.
The good news for the conference is that whoever emerges from the ACC title game in Jacksonville in December has a guaranteed spot in the Orange Bowl.
"We haven't had a tie-in with a bowl at that level since the 1950s. So it was a real step forward for us," Swofford said. "It's something that I think the people in Miami, the FedEx Orange Bowl people, feel just as good about as we do. It's just sort of one of those relationships that works both ways - and that's the way those kinds of relationships should be.
"It sets us up very nicely. When you're playing for the ACC football championship in Jacksonville, the worst you're going to do if you win is go to the FedEx Orange Bowl in Miami - and if you're not there, you're going to be playing in the national-championship game. So this is a huge plus for us and for the bowl. Geographically, it's a natural for both of us," Swofford said.
- Chris Graham