In 1999, Florida State won the national championship in football. FSU went to the national title game in 2000. Miami of Florida won the title in 2001 and went to the title game in 2002. Soon thereafter, the folks at the ACC had what appeared to be a very clever idea -- and an easy way to make a lot of money. Under NCAA rules, a conference with 12 teams can play an extra game to decide the conference championship. Since 1992, the SEC has made a fortune off of this loophole. But the ACC only had nine teams. So here was the idea: add Miami (Florida) and two other teams from the Big East -- it didn't really matter which two -- so that the ACC would have twelve members. Then, so long as you put FSU and Miami (Fla.) in opposite divisions, they could meet for the ACC title -- somewhere in Florida, of course. The new ACC championship game would feature huge crowds and (most years), two top 10 teams.
And so it was set up. At first, the ACC was going to add Miami (Fla.), Boston College, and Syracuse -- but the Commonwealth of Virginia forced UVA to use its influence to get the ACC to take Virginia Tech instead of Syracuse. At the time, no one outside of Virginia paid much attention to this development, but it turned out to be very important, as Virginia Tech is now going for its fourth ACC title. In fact, the expected FSU-Miami (Fla.) match-up has never occurred, as both the Noles and the Canes have fallen on hard times. The games that the ACC has gotten instead have not been all that glamorous (AP top 20 rankings in parentheses):
2005 (Jacksonville, FL): Florida State 27, (5) Virginia Tech 22
2006 (Jacksonville, FL): (16) Wake Forest 9, Georgia Tech 6
2007 (Jacksonville, FL): (5) Virginia Tech 30, (12) Boston College 16
2008 (Tampa, FL): Virginia Tech 30, (16) Boston College 12
2009 (Tampa, FL): (10) Georgia Tech 39, Clemson 34
2010 (Charlotte, NC): (11) Virginia Tech 44, (20) Florida State 33
No Florida team made the game at all from 2006 to 2009, and as a result the attendance was disastrous. The 2008 game drew fewer than 28,000 people. So, like almost everything else in the ACC, the game has been moved to North Carolina. Last year's game in Charlotte drew 72,379 fans, and I would expect a big crowd for tonight's game -- as Charlotte is conveniently located to both the Shenendoah Valley and the uplands of South Carolina.
It should be noted that this is the first ACC title game to also serve as a UCFC game. I think this is probably also the only time in modern history that two teams have played each other for the UCFC twice during the same season. You will recall that back on October 1, Clemson went up to Blacksburg and stunned Virginia Tech 23-3. In retrospect, that was one of the most important games of the season, as it turned out to be Tech's only loss. If they had won that game, the Hokies would now be looking at a trip to the BCS game against LSU. Instead, they are hoping to win another trip to the Orange Bowl.
Clemson, who played so well for most of the season, has fallen on hard times since losing the UCFC. The Tigers bounced back from their loss to Georgia Tech with a 31-28 win over Wake Forest. But they have fallen apart since, losing 37-13 at North Carolina State and 34-13 at South Carolina. They have fallen to number 21 in the AP poll. But now they can redeem themselves by winning the ACC title, an Orange Bowl bid, and (of course) the UCFC. Their record in UCFC games is 10-9.
Virginia Tech is 11-1 on the year and 3-14 all-time in the UCFC. They are 12-18-1 all-time against Clemson, and 0-2 against Clemson in UCFC games, losing 40-7 on September 3, 1988 and 23-3 on October 1, 2011. The Hokies are number 5 in the nation. They are also, according to the gurus in Vegas, a seven-point favorite tonight. That sounds about right to me.
