ACC gets dragged on Twitter for going 0-6 during bowl season
With almost every conference playing either 1 or 0 nonconference games this year, it was tough to get a read on how teams stacked up on a national scope.
But, now that the dust has settled and the only game left this season is the College Football Playoff title game between Alabama and Ohio State, 1 thing is painfully clear — the ACC was probably overrated.
The league went 0-6 in bowls this year, with 2 high-profile losses in the CFP semifinals and a loss in the Orange Bowl. Here were all the ACC results:
- Rose Bowl (CFP): Alabama 31, Notre Dame 14
- Sugar Bowl (CFP): Ohio State 49, Clemson 28
- Orange Bowl: Texas A&M 41, North Carolina 27
- Gator Bowl: Kentucky 23, NC State 21
- Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Wisconsin 42, Wake Forest 28
- Cheez-It Bowl: Oklahoma State 37, Miami 34
Naturally, after that awful performance during bowl season, the ACC got dragged on Twitter. Here were some of the reactions mocking the ACC for its 0-for-6 bowl season:
How many bowl games did the ACC win? pic.twitter.com/avP4ElYmdC
— Ryan (@Ryanmcc09) January 3, 2021
The ACC got smoked in the bowl games this year 0-6. Let's start putting these non power conference teams in
— Hugo Reyes (@HugoReyesJr) January 3, 2021
https://twitter.com/kevin_shuman/status/1345722012170391552
Good morning. The ACC went 0-6 this bowl season.
— Brian Dautch (@Bdautch) January 3, 2021
https://twitter.com/Gamecock1998/status/1345718715535515649
https://twitter.com/bluekel/status/1345716296906919936
Fun fact: ACC finishes 2020-21 bowl season perfect, at 0-6.#CFBPlayoff #CFB
Special thanks to @SEC @Big12Conference and @B1Gfootball for making this tweet possible!
— Week Zero Podcast (@weekzerosports) January 3, 2021
ACC bowl season recap: pic.twitter.com/tBMEwzPWVb
— Phony Bennett (@IfTonyTweeted) January 3, 2021
Lol ACC went 0-6 in bowl games.. imagine if Clemson had to play someone with a pulse q once in a while
— OLI (@olitrolly11) January 3, 2021
The ACC finishes 0-6 in bowl season.
That matches the worst mark by any conference all-time (MAC went 0-6 in 2016, Conference USA went 0-6 this year). pic.twitter.com/2qqCATDuum
— OutOfSightSports (@OOSSports) January 3, 2021
Yeah, it has been a rough few days for the ACC, to say the least. When you get 2 teams in the Playoff, it messes with your other bowl matchups, since teams are often playing higher-rated teams.
But, to go 0-6, finishing with a historically bad mark in bowl games, is never a good look. We’ll see what 2021 has in store for the ACC.
And what does history teach us?
SEC= football
ACC= basketball
Rarely does this fail to be the case.
Except that the winningest team in college basketball history is an SEC school, so there’s that.
They ought to play basketball in the ACC. Kind of split their conference affiliations. LOL
this is stupid “When you get 2 teams in the Playoff, it messes with your other bowl matchups since teams are often playing higher-rated teams.” Look at how many SEC teams played higher-rated teams or more wins (not counting Alabama) and they went 5-2 so do not make excuses for the non-power 5 ACC..Take Clemson out the last few years and what is the ACC other than a basketball conference …IF Clemson played in the SEC they would be Auburn with a lake….
I disagree on Clemson. Probably some years they don’t get in with the tougher schedule, but when they do get in you are talking about a team that wins it as regularly as Alabama. They, if not their conference have earned that respect.
Ah, another Lewis Grizzard fan. Classic.
I agree with most of your points. The SEC was only ranked higher in 3 matchups. Three un ranked teams from the SEC beat ranked teams from other conferences. I think this was a great season for the SEC, showing that even our weakest teams could beat other conferences best.
Well how can you really say that, ND was only in the conference for this year. Really they all matched up like normal. Only thing you can argue is they played a weaker bowl schedule and still lost.
The SEC previously had their best teams in the playoff and then NY6 bowls leaving the others to face higher ranked teams from other conferences. Even then we usually held our own. I can understand others’ GLEE in seeing the SEC have a “down year” – I hope they enjoyed them and pay attention to how teams with losing records in 10 SEC games fared against RANKED teams from other conferences. Now we need Bama to do their thing!
I don’t buy the idea that 2020 was “a down year” for the SEC. There’s been a lot of turmoil, but what do you expect when teams are playing SEC competition every single week? When every game has only one winner, you’re naturally going to have a lot of teams racking up the losses. That’s not a “down year”, it’s just math.
I agree
Clemson was clearly over-rated. Etienne is easily one of the best in the game, yet he only finished No.6 ACC in rushing.
Clemson was not as good on offense or defensive lines as they have been. That was the difference. Not having their OC- play caller for the play-off game clearly hurt.
Apparently OSU changed their signals, since Clemson stealing them didn’t seem to help at all.
In other news, in a couple of weeks ESPN will start posting articles like “our way too early top 25”. What are the odds that Notre Dame is in the top 5 with some “They’ll apply the tough lessons learned in the Rose Bowl and use that resolve to turn the corner this year”
I have faith that even ESPN won’t make that mistake again. The graphic showing ND’s 0-6 record in NY6 bowls and playoff games over the past 20 years was pretty revealing, especially with all being blowout losses. Add another one to that list now.
They continue to get credit they don’t deserve. Kelly is a whining moron. Yelling at the reporters because he can’t get his team ready for these games.
Gig’em, every year ND is in the top 10 in the pre-season rankings, ESPN and every other publication puts them up there based on their history and fanbase, that won’t change in 2021.
I just hope they don’t put UGA in that way too early top 5. I hate being highly ranked preseason. Jinxes us for the season
What does vandy and the a-she-she have a common ZERO WINS.
SEC teams played higher ranked teams in most cases. They lost two games they were expected to lose. They won the games they were expected to win, and they won games they were expected to lose. A good showing by the SEC, overall.
The ACC is not a good football conference period. People have been saying for years that the weak conference slate props up Clemson and they said the same thing about FSU before them. But about Clemson specifically, this makes three playoff games in a row that neither Lawrence, Etienne, or Venables showed up for. They are clearly not the elite program the media makes them out to be.
Yup. Unlike Dabo, Bobby Bowden was honest about it. Back on the 1990s, he was asked why FSU never strongly pursued going to the SEC and he said something to the nature of, why be a big fish in a big pond when I can be a big fish in a little pond.
I remember just one or two years ago Dabo babbling about how the ACC was on par or better than the SEC. Before that Dumbo Fisher at FSU was spouting the same manure. Every year is the same thing and it ends the same for them
The BIG10 does not have much to be proud of themselves.
North Carolina is a good team aND they played a great bowl game. In Aggie-speak, it’s “bad bull” to rub their fans’ noses in it.
The “they had 2 teams in the playoffs” line that normally makes sense, but doesn’t apply here. It’s excuse making.
ACC team was:
The higher ranked team in 3 of the matchups (Clemson, Miami NC State). One of those was a loss to a team with a losing record.
One of the matchups was teams with similar records (3-3 Wisconsin vs 4-4 Wake).
One was a 1 vs 4 playoff matchup that should be competitive regardless (but nobody really thought it would be).
The only one where they were forced to play up was 8-1 A&M vs 8-3 UNC and that wasn’t that big of a gap as a 5 vs 13.
ACC was given a gift of having 2 playoff teams, a gift they proved on the field they were not worthy of.