That’s our ranking in the on-going article on ESPN.com this week. This ranking is reflective of the past decade and is covering the teams, 25 at a time, starting at the back of the pack. Rankings are supposed to be a combination of on field performance, NCAA compliance, and classroom performance. I’m pretty sure the last two make up approximately 2% of the weighting. Sadly, I pretty much agree with our ranking though a couple of non-bonehead plays here and there add a win or two and we are top 25 based on what I am seeing. Clemson comments are as follows:

RANK TEAM RECORD WIN % TITLES BOWL RECORD

31 Clemson 70-51 .579 0 3-5

ACC expansion has largely turned the Tigers into conference also-rans, as they haven’t won a league title in 16 years. Coach Tommy Bowden has won 60 games in eight seasons at Clemson, leading the Tigers to a bowl game in all but one year. But the Tigers notoriously have fallen short of lofty expectations during his tenure, including last season’s disappointing 8-5 record.

I couldn’t sum it up better myself.

What I do find humorous is the number of ACC foes in this group. GT at 26, MD at 36, NCSU at 40, UVA at 43….oh and USuCk at 46 for the SEC. I don’t know if this means the conference has a lot of unrealized potential or just really upper crust mediocre. That’s the ACC and it confuses me (last year).

Wake is 60, UNC 67, and Duke is waaaaaaaay back at 115 (of 119).

This leaves Miami, FSU, VT, and BC to round out the ACC and secure our fair share of top 25′s. Nine teams in the top 50, fairs pretty good overall for the conference. 5 teams in the upper middle, indicating they usually win 7 or so games and have a some pretty good mixed in years to balance out with some craters. My projections for the remaining four in tomorrow’s rankings (in ascending order): BC – 25, Miami – 13, FSU – 11, VT – 8. These could be a little off as I am giving more weighting to the last five years than the first five; a trend the article does not seem to follow. Otherwise, FSU and Miami are shoe in’s for the top 10 if not 5 and VT gets punished and pushed back at least 5 spots for late season collapses during the Big East years.

I’ll try and update my projections with commentary tomorrow. This gnome should have plenty of time to roam the web.

**********UPDATE*******

FSU came in at 7, Miami 8, VT 12, and BC 22. The two names everyone knows were not penalized as much for the recent slides becasue of the great earlier success and VT was punished for not being able to consistently finish off their seasons with BCS type appearances. When looking at teh top 25, it’s hard to argue the rankings when looking at the competition and reasoning. This also indicates why the ACC has been a bit of a let down since the expansion.

Posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 2:33 pm by Bowman

Filed under Football, Media.

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