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Al Golden puzzled by disparity between SEC and ACC

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Al Golden puzzled by disparity between SEC and ACC
by: Michael Casagrande July 27th, 2012 | 5:47 PM
There are two major football conferences in the south. Conference A extends nearly the entire length of the eastern seaboard while Conference B extends further west to the interior. Both have teams in the most fertile recruiting grounds, yet Conference A lags well behind Conference B where it matters most — championships.

Of course the ACC is the first one and the SEC the second. Schools from the ACC are 3-12 in BCS bowl games after losing both attempts last season. The SEC lost its first BCS Championship Game a year ago only because it had both teams involved. The six straight SEC national titles and the ACC’s struggle to compete isn’t lost on Miami coach Al Golden.

“I don’t know,” he said Monday. “We’re a little puzzled too. If you look at the players in the NFL, it’s really close, like neck and neck (between ACC and SEC alums).

The SEC had 42 players taken in the April draft to the ACC’s 31. And if you trust these numbers, from 2011, the SEC produced 25.6 or 308 of the NFL players compared to the ACC’s 23.1 or 278.

“I don’t know all the factors that go into it,” Golden said. “Whether it’s scheduling or home-field advantage or whatever, right now they’re doing a better job than what we’re doing right now. But again, Miami’s won five (national titles), Florida State’s won two, Clemson has one, and Virginia Tech has been as good as anybody.

“I feel like we’re headed in the right direction right now owning the whole east coast is going to be huge.”

When Syracuse and Pitt join next year, the ACC will reach from the Canadian border to Coral Gables.

ACC commissioner John Swofford is equally confident in the ACC’s return to the top. Speaking at the ACC Kickoff on Sunday, he addressed the whole issue of the league’s BCS record.

“I have to believe there will be a day when that 3-12 becomes 12-3,” Swofford said.
 
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The crazy thing is the ACC usually has more of its alums in the pro bowl than any other conference, including the SEC.
 
CANE said:
It's coaching.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's the number one reason. They have better top-flight coaches. Factor in they have shady recruiting tactics, shady roster mgmt, and a partial media, and you have your answer.

Anyhow, if the ACC schools started ponying up the dough to pay for the best coaches, you would see the ACC improve dramatically.
 
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Problem is most SEC schools are significantly larger than ACC schools. When you graduate 30k+ more people a year your fan base grows exponentially bigger than a small, expensive, private school's (or even a mid-sized public school with top academics, e.g. GaTech, UVA, UNC). All that translates into $$'s to hire the Nick Saban's of the world for $5m a year.

Miami has been good in the past only because they are in the most fertile recruiting area in terms of total recruits, and have intermittently hired excellent young coaches (Johnson, Butch, dare I say Golden?) which allows them to compete with the big boys, who also happen to be in great recruiting areas, unlike the northern members of the ACC.

wushah said:
CANE said:
It's coaching.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's the number one reason. They have better top-flight coaches. Factor in they have shady recruiting tactics, shady roster mgmt, and a partial media, and you have your answer.

Anyhow, if the ACC schools started ponying up the dough to pay for the best coaches, you would see the ACC improve dramatically.
Click to expand...
 
This year will be very telling for the ACC. There are a lot of future NFL quarterbacks in the conference.
 
umhurricane2511 said:
lulz at Golden basically finding a nice way to point out VT has zero titles
Click to expand...

I think they typify the ACC. The ARK of it: never great, likely to never win an NC. Then Clemson is UGA, where underperformance is essentially a style of play.

If MIAMI/FSU were elite, the ship is righted, because you have top tier teams playing top tier teams. But right now you have mid-tier ACC schools playing the best of other conferences, which trickles down the line. You take Alabama & LSU off the perch last year & bump all the remaining teams up? ARK vs OSU or ORE. Lose both. UGA vs MICH or Wiscy. Lose both. You can match up SC, UF & thr rest to similar effect.

You HAVE to have your top dogs be killers, or the whole pack suffers.
 
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IndayArtHauz said:
umhurricane2511 said:
lulz at Golden basically finding a nice way to point out VT has zero titles
Click to expand...

I think they typify the ACC. The ARK of it: never great, likely to never win an NC. Then Clemson is UGA, where underperformance is essentially a style of play.

If MIAMI/FSU were elite, the ship is righted, because you have top tier teams playing top tier teams. But right now you have mid-tier ACC schools playing the best of other conferences, which trickles down the line. You take Alabama & LSU off the perch last year & bump all the remaining teams up? ARK vs OSU or ORE. Lose both. UGA vs MICH or Wiscy. Lose both. You can match up SC, UF & thr rest to similar effect.

You HAVE to have your top dogs be killers, or the whole pack suffers.
Click to expand...

This. Same thing happened in the Big East when we were down. Once we were back on top, we pushed VT down to a bowl they could win, which pushed others down to games they could win. FSU and Miami need to be top ten and push VT and Clemson into bowl games they can win, in turn pushing the GT's, BC's, and UVA's to games they can win. FSU and Miami and Clemson to some extent are the only programs that can legitimately go against SEC powers and not blink when we are on top of our game.
 
its money...when you see all the sec schools building and adding to facilities and having huge support staffs it makes a difference plus they are buying up all the best assist. Coaches...ACC imo have only 3 schools that can even field nc caliber teams year to year FSU/UM/Clem....VT is solid but they don't/can't get the same talent and in big games they simply don't do well....
 
CaneCounty said:
Al Golden puzzled by disparity between SEC and ACC
by: Michael Casagrande July 27th, 2012 | 5:47 PM
There are two major football conferences in the south. Conference A extends nearly the entire length of the eastern seaboard while Conference B extends further west to the interior. Both have teams in the most fertile recruiting grounds, yet Conference A lags well behind Conference B where it matters most — championships.

Of course the ACC is the first one and the SEC the second. Schools from the ACC are 3-12 in BCS bowl games after losing both attempts last season. The SEC lost its first BCS Championship Game a year ago only because it had both teams involved. The six straight SEC national titles and the ACC’s struggle to compete isn’t lost on Miami coach Al Golden.

“I don’t know,” he said Monday. “We’re a little puzzled too. If you look at the players in the NFL, it’s really close, like neck and neck (between ACC and SEC alums).

The SEC had 42 players taken in the April draft to the ACC’s 31. And if you trust these numbers, from 2011, the SEC produced 25.6 or 308 of the NFL players compared to the ACC’s 23.1 or 278.

“I don’t know all the factors that go into it,” Golden said. “Whether it’s scheduling or home-field advantage or whatever, right now they’re doing a better job than what we’re doing right now. But again, Miami’s won five (national titles), Florida State’s won two, Clemson has one, and Virginia Tech has been as good as anybody.

“I feel like we’re headed in the right direction right now owning the whole east coast is going to be huge.”

When Syracuse and Pitt join next year, the ACC will reach from the Canadian border to Coral Gables.

ACC commissioner John Swofford is equally confident in the ACC’s return to the top. Speaking at the ACC Kickoff on Sunday, he addressed the whole issue of the league’s BCS record.

“I have to believe there will be a day when that 3-12 becomes 12-3,” Swofford said.
Click to expand...


All our teams are on probation.
 
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