Clemson picked to win ACC football; App expected to win SoCon

The Clemson Tigers are the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference's football championship this year, as predicted by members of the media.

Clemson was picked No. 1 in the (still ill-named) Atlantic Division. I'm guessing by looking at the preseason rankings that Clemson is expected to knock off Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship game. The Hokies are expected to leave the (equally ill-named) Coastal Division.

As far as N.C. teams go, UNC-Chapel Hill is expected to finish second in the Coastal, and Wake Forest second in the Atlantic. At the other end of the spectrum are Duke and N.C. State, who are expected to finish last in the Coastal and Atlantic, respectively.

In other football news, three-time national champ Appalachian State has been picked to win the Southern Conference ... again. The Mountaineers received eight of nine first-place votes in the preseason coaches poll.

Elon University was picked second, while Western Carolina was picked eighth.

Charlotte awarded with ACC football championship game

According to published reports, Charlotte will host the 2010 and 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference football championship games, while Tampa will do the honors in 2008 and 2009.

"The decision was reached unanimously this morning in a conference call of the league's athletics directors and faculty athletics representatives, which ended a seven-month bid and selection process, a conference statement said," says the News & Observer.

"We are extremely excited about the future of the ACC Football Championship game at these sites," Commissioner John Swofford said. "Both Tampa Bay and Charlotte are tremendous destinations in terms of their football venue, community support and partnership with the Atlantic Coast Conference."

The games in Charlotte will take place on Dec. 4, 2010, and Dec. 3, 2011, at Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers and the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
The first three ACC title games have been in Jacksonville, Fla.

The state's best football rivalry

Let's face it: North Carolina is a state of mediocre football. Heck, even the Panthers aren't very good anymore.

Bad football or not, blood still boils when State and Carolina kick it off each year. This Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, you'll be able to feel the intensity in the stands, let alone on the field. The fans of the respective schools love to give and take, and there should be plenty of that before, during and after Saturday.

Coaches Tom O'Brien (NCSU) and Butch Davis (UNC) are not leading their alma maters, like their predecessors Chuck Amato and John Bunting did. In fact, the two newbies actually get along quite well.

But don't expect the importance of this game to sneak past them.

“I’ve got an idea (what’s ahead),” O’Brien told reporters on Monday. “I don’t think any one game is any more important when you play 12 games. If there is a sense that one (game) approaches that, this has to be it because of who and what we are.”

O’Brien is confident that he has had the best training possible to contend with the rivalry’s demands [writes the Winston-Salem Journal's Bill Cole]. He attended the Naval Academy and played in the Army-Navy game for four seasons. He coached in the game for seven seasons as a Navy assistant.

And to O’Brien, there is no rivalry that can surpass Army-Navy.

“From 28 June, 1967, the day I reported, the first three words I learned were, ‘Beat Army, Sir.’ ” O’Brien said. “From the first day you’re there to the day your plebe year (first year) is over, that’s all you do. Everything there is to beat Army. Nothing else is important as far as athletics.”

Sounds familiar.

Skip Prosser, 1950-2007

Just a horrible, horrible story about Wake Forest's basketball coach, who died on July 26 at age 56.

Winston-Salem Journal sports columnist Lenox Rawlings -- ever so skillful with the quill -- makes the analogy between a basketball season's end and the end of life.

"Seasons always end.

"Seasons seldom end on 10-foot ladders cutting down nets or on makeshift stages hugging trophies.

"Seasons usually end in concrete hallways and dank basements and steamy locker rooms. Seasons usually end with showers dripping and tears dropping and someone moaning in the next room, overwhelmed by swift finality. ...

"Across the far-flung basketball universe yesterday, thousands of people shared Coach Prosser’s seat. They slumped on sofas and leaned on friends in bewildered disbelief.

"They closed their eyes and saw Prosser spinning on his heels in front of the Deacons’ bench, his strawberry hair and coattail blowing in his personal breeze. They saw his right arm gesturing and his lips puckering and his beet-red head shaking defiantly, every ounce of his considerable energy conveying one simple message: You guys missed that call. ...

"Dino Gaudio, a Wake Forest assistant, worked with Prosser at Central Catholic High in Wheeling, W.Va. In the early stages of a season that ended with a state championship, Prosser’s team lost a game in Ohio.

" 'The kids were in the showers in the locker room chatting a little bit,' Gaudio said years later, 'and he felt they weren’t taking the loss hard enough. He walked into the shower. It had a curb on it holding in this much water.'

"Gaudio held his hands 6 inches apart.

" 'I’ll never forget when he walked back out. His shoes were soaked, and so were his pants, up to his ankles, but he got his point across to those kids that we don’t take losing like that. He’s always taken it incredibly, incredibly hard. I think he takes it hard because he always blames himself. You’ll never hear him, anywhere he’s been, blame the kids.'

"Nobody blames anybody today, but lots of people take losing Skip Prosser very, very hard."

VPI picked to win ACC football in 2007

The Virginia Tech Hokies were picked by the media to finish on top in the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference football race.

"The Hokies are picked to win the Coastal Division, with Georgia Tech second in the division, Miami third, Virginia fourth, North Carolina fifth and Duke sixth," says WRAL.com. "Tech received 77 first place votes out of the 83 ballots cast for the divisional race, while 69 of the 83 voters chose them to win the ACC Championship Game.

"Florida State is picked to win the Atlantic Division, with Boston College second, Clemson third, Wake Forest fourth, Maryland fifth and N.C. State sixth.

"Wake Forest is the defending ACC champion after last year's surprising run to the title. Miami was picked to win the ACC last season. ..."

However, it should be noted that the Only Team That Matters could surprise some people.

State-Carolina ACC final draws huge TV ratings

If house- and yardwork around the Triangle appeared neglected on Sunday, there's a valid reason why: the ACC Tournament championship game.

The tournament final between N.C. State and North Carolina drew mammoth ratings in the Raleigh area. According to WRAZ researcher Gerald Belton, the the average quarter-hour ratings during the game Sunday afternoon were 22.0 with a 45 share, which represents 221,000 households.

"That's a huge number for this market, on par with what a highly anticipated Duke-Carolina basketball game would draw," said the Raleigh News & Observer.

"The peak time for viewing was between 2:45 p.m. and 3 p.m., with a 32.1 rating with a 58 share, or 323,000 households."

Miami's Haith knows what we're talking about

Miami Hurricanes men's basketball coach Frank Haith, a native North Carolinian, could definitely relate to our discussion about childhood ACC tourney memories.

"This is the greatest tournament in the country, the crowd, the fans," Haith told the Wilmington Star-News. "Obviously growing up in North Carolina, Friday afternoons in high school, when the TVs are turned on and the teachers aren't teaching but we're watching the ACC tournament, obviously it's very special."

It's that time of year again

As a native North Carolinian, few things elicit the excitement of the ACC basketball tournament. And even though this year's tournament is in a foreign land (Tampa, Florida), some 700 miles from where it should be (Greensboro or, at the very least, Charlotte or Atlanta), there's still some excitement for the tournament in this 32-year-old body that hasn't been present to a tournament in about 6 years.

And, believe it or not, I have the North Carolina public school system to thank for that excitement.

After all, "ACC Tournament Week" in elementary and middle school was almost like an in-school vacation. I can remember teachers pretty much making up lesson plans based around the tournament. Specifically, math teachers would have students calculate just how far it is between, say, College Park and Tallahassee. Or history teachers would have students research the Morrill Act (which paved the way for Land Grant colleges), or how the different schools were founded. And so on and so on.

The whole week was topped off when TVs were wheeled into the classrooms to watch the Friday morning and afternoon session of games from the tournament. And, of course, schoolchildren wore their favorite teams colors. Of course, being that we were in North Carolina in the 1980s and early 1990s, the classrooms were pretty much split between red and light blue. (There was no such thing as Duke fans back in those days. And I remember just one Wake Forest fan, K.C. Gold. I always respected that about him.)

For those of you who grew up in North Carolina, do you have similar memories? And for those that did not, was there a similar level of excitement for "the tournament" in your state?