I agree that is a big deal, and I also liked the Post Championship question asked of Dabo this morning when a reporter ask: Does this win elevate the perception of the ACC as a whole since the Conference finished 9-3 this bowl season with a National Championship by the Tigers?....Dabo's answer was: Well, guess some of you sport writers will have to trash what you been writing, and change your script because I been saying for years that this conference has NOT gotten the respect that it deserves...We've got great coaches and generally teams nowadays don't want to see an ACC team across the field come bowl time."
The perception of the conference has dramatically changed since these playoffs have begun, and now kids want to be part of a conference that has a realistic chance to win a National Title, and Clemson and FSU can't sign em' all?....In fact, Dabo stated this morning that Clemson will probably only sign 14 players this year and about that many next year....Which means, there is plenty of room on other ACC rosters for kids who want to play and compete against the best in the Country, and right now to use Dabo's own words: Clemson has planted it's flag at the top of the College Football Mountain, and ACC teams will be lining up to knock the Tigers down off their earned pedestal which is what we have heard for years from SEC teams and their fans as they have tried to dethrone Saban and the Crimson Tide dynasty...The script has flipped, and the ACC as a whole will benefit as a result with better football teams in the future along with the increase of money that accompanies that success!
The immediate future of ACC Football is about as bright as it's ever been with an on-air ACC Network coming in 2019, and the digital network already in place....
The perception about ACC Football has changed dramatically, and all the teams in the conference will benefit as a result thanks to Clemson winning the new-era playoff, last night!
Congrats to the Tigers and their fans!
ACC...ACC....ACC!
Everything is aligned to come down as I said when the ND deal was announced that it could, and probably should, come down. ACC football would rise, perhaps a great deal. We could see a future in which the ACC and SEC are clearly the top 2 football conferences over every 5 year period.
Think of what we now see, and then consider that each passing year shows even the most hardheaded ND football booster that Irish football needs to play for conference championships. ND football is never again going to have that top stature nationally just by playing a 'national' schedule. The situation is analogous to ND and the no bowls tradition. ND won the National title in 1966 not playing a bowl, but the school changed the policy 2 years later because it realized that not playing in bowls any longer would make ND football a dinosaur. Today, conference championship games are
HUGE. And especially with the Clemson blowout of Ohio St, conference championships are about to become necessary to making the playoffs. The only ND teams that will be able to make the playoffs will be 12-0, and perhaps need to have more wins over P5 winning P5 teams than every P5 champ.
ND football now needs ACC football in a way that not a single typical ND fan on the internet could grasp even 5 years ago. The ND deal was not the ACC being desperate; it was the ACC tossing ND a lifeline, giving ND time to bring its football boosters around to accepting what has been inevitable at least since it became obvious that BE football part 2 would not last.
ND must either be a full member of ACC football or else join the Big Ten - sooner rather than later. And the BT would absorb ND and render it a neutered nothing.
ND football is that final piece that will make ACC football permanently huge nationally, even with our many small schools and attendance we;; below the SEC and BT. The 16th team won't really matter. With what we already have, toss in ND and its unique national appeal, and ACC football will see a permanent spike in its national TV numbers. We are already 3rd, behind the SEC and BT and ahead of the Big 12 and Pac.
That and the juggernaut we have in basketball and our baseball and lacrosse and soccer - the ACC network will do well.
