Your "ACC Is On The Rise" Update For 9/16

In the interests of science, let's see how the resurgent ACC did this weekend:

IN CONFERENCE
Just one game this week, with Georgia Tech hammering Duke. Duke has been making strides under David Cutcliffe, but Tech's bizarro offense is tough if you don't have the athletes to pursue the flexbone, and Duke, well, doesn't. Or if they do, they're all playing for Coach K.


OUT OF CONFERENCE: NOMMING CUPCAKES
New kids Syracuse beat holy hell out of Wagner, 54-0. Whether it was Robert or Lyndsay, I'm not sure. If they did beat the Bionic Woman, I'll be all kinds of impressed. If, on the other hand, they beat up on NEC member Wagner, not so much.

Florida State beat up Nevada, 62-7. Not much has gone right for Nevada football since Colin Kaepernick graduated.

Maryland beat AAC sad-sack Connecticut in the Randy Edsall Bowl, and other new kid Pitt handled perennial ESPN bottom 10 member New Mexico by three touchdowns.

That's 4-0, with league teams taking care of business that they ought to and Syracuse getting off the schneid. So far, so good.

OUT OF CONFERENCE: WHOOPS

The ACC's toughest test this week was a reeling USC team, and there was talk that 2-0 Boston College could pull this one out. If you listened to national sports talk, the Trojans were this close to being the Jacksonville Jaguars of the Pac-12, and ripe for an upset. In reality, not so much. USC outgained the Eagles 521-184 in total offense. USC had more rushing yards than BC had total yardage. Ouch.

But still, that's one game, and considering the talent USC has on hand (even if it is coached by Lane Kiffin), you kind of can forgive that one. And besides, there's no way Wake Forest would lose to Louisiana-Monroe, right? Err. Forget I said anything.

At least Virginia Tech took care of business, barely. More accurate to say that ECU gave them the business, or perhaps "turned over the business" in a 15-10 win that should have been a loss for one of the conference's powerhouse programs.

TALLY
Good out of conference wins: 0
Expected out of conference wins: 4
Expected out of conference wins that were way closer than they had any right to be: 1
Bad out of conference losses: 2

CONCLUSION
Clemson had better get back on the field soon.