No 'Challenge'
OK, ladies and germs - we can stop calling it a "Challenge."
The ACC once again cleaned the floor with the Big 10 - winning the annual ACC-Big 10 Challenge by a final count of eight wins to three.
That sounds impressive enough, sure - but then consider that of the three Big 10 wins, Northwestern beat Miami by one point, and Purdue beat Virginia by two on a shot with 1.2 seconds left.
This wasn't a Challenge - this was Democrats taking the House and the Senate. This was the Yankees taking all five from the BoSox.
It's getting to be Notre Dame-Navy, to be honest.
So perhaps we can count on the doofuses-that-be who run the NCAA tournament-selection committee to come around on the issue of giving our league some props.
As Maryland coach Gary Williams pointed out to me earlier this year at ACC Operation Basketball, of the previous seven times that the ACC won the Challenge, it received fewer NCAA bids than the vanquished Big 10 in five of those years.
What do we have to do to prove ourselves vis-a-vis the Big 10? I ask aloud.
I know, I know - we could win all 11 games one year.
Alas, maybe next year - if there is a next year.
I don't know, I'm the Big 10, I don't want another drubbing.
- Chris Graham