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ACC football has never bragged about being better than, say, the perennially mighty SEC.
But the ACC has always tried to keep up with the likes of the other power conferences, and not too long ago the conference had Clemson to boast about as the Tigers were bringing national titles back to the ACC.
But it’s gotten really cold in December of 2024 for the ACC, and we’re not talking about the weather. The conference, which for decades had a claim as the best basketball league in the country, has had a historically bad football postseason. And, sadly, there’s still more postseason football for the ACC to play.
But through Saturday — which included bowl losses by Miami, North Carolina, Boston College, and NC State — the conference is an unfathomable 0-10 against the spread. This includes College Football Playoff first-round losses by SMU and Clemson, which captured the ACC title with a last-second victory over SMU before the league’s postseason misery began.
When you crunch the numbers even further, ACC teams have failed to cover the spread by 8.3 points per game this postseason.
That’s more than a touchdown per game, for those scoring at home. Right now, with still a few more bowl games to go for the suffering conference, ACC teams aren’t scoring nearly enough.
It has 3 bowl games remaining. Louisville plays Washington in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31. Duke plays Ole Miss in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 2. And Virginia Tech closes out the postseason for the ACC in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against Minnesota on Jan. 3. The league’s teams are just 1-9 straight up, with Syracuse owning the only victory.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
