The Confidential

The ACC Sports Blog

09 Jan 2013

Baseball Writers: Clueless

Apparently, the Baseball Writers Association of America stood up for all that is decent and well in this Country by deeming nobody worthy of entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Apparently, they were not watching baseball for the past 20 years.  It is unclear how anyone could conclude that Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, and Curt Schilling, were not worthy of entrance into the Hall of Fame.  These individuals did more than enough for baseball to justify enshrinement.  We all saw it.  But not the writers.  They want their Hall of Fame clean.  No, they want OUR Hall of Fame clean to THEIR standards.

To be sure, nobody is naive enough to not notice the smell around Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa.  Of course, Clemens was not found guilty of doing anything.  The Confidential does not particularly care for Clemens, but what else could he have done?  And Bonds has never been found guilty of anything either.  Federal funds were expended to bring these players down.  And yet those efforts failed.

More importantly, we saw these guys on the field.  Skinny Barry Bonds was worthy of a Hall of Fame ballot long before the steroid era.  Clemens may well have been too.  Sure, if both of these guys took steroids, and it is hard to debate that they did not, they unfairly extended their careers.  But, at the same time, both guys were doing what they could to help their team too.  Frankly, if steroids was as rampant as claimed, taking steroids was necessary to remain competitive.  That’s not the fault of Bonds and Clemens.  That’s baseball’s fault for allowing so many lesser talents to improve their careers with performance enhancing drugs.  Bonds and Clemens just looked around and decided to join the culture.

But even if they were evil people, taking steroids for evil reasons, why keep them out of the Hall of Fame?  Fame can be positive and negative.  Bonds and Clemens have amazing statistical histories, but will always be dogged by the steroid issue.  Forcing that to take place outside the Hall of Fame, rather than inside, benefits nobody.  These guys should not be ignored, they should be given an asterisk.  And then we can all debate whether that asterisk means anything.

And what about Biggio, Schilling, and Piazza.  Biggio is everything that a Hall of Famer should be.  No accusations of steroids (if that is so important).  Longevity.  Played the game the right way.  Piazza was less rumor-free, but he was as good an offensive catcher as their ever was.  And Schilling’s exploits against the Yankees in the World Series, regardless of how genuine, deserve to be memorialized for all baseball fans.  Tell the story of how generations of Red Sox fans did not see a World Series win, at least until a gimpy Schilling put them on his back and carried them to the prize.

In 2013, none of these guys will enter the Hall of Fame.  That is a shame.  Credit the clueless Baseball Writers Association of America.

Posted by acaffrey in Baseball, Opinion and tagged , ,
08 Jan 2013
1 Comment

ACC Basketball Rankings: January 8, 2013

This is particularly complex with Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Syracuse not yet in the ACC, but it can still be done.  This is how the Confidential ranks the ACC basketball teams as of January 8, 2013:

1.  Duke (14-0)–The Blue Devils are either loved or hated.  But you have to hand it to this team–they are really taking care of business.

2. Louisville (13-1)–The ACC’s newest addition’s only loss came to Duke.  Louisville has better wins (Missouri, Kentucky) than Syracuse (Arkansas).

3.Syracuse (13-1)–The Orange overcame a scare against South Florida.  Only blemish on the season remains Temple.

4.Notre Dame (14-1)--The Irish have the same record as Syracuse, but Syracuse went on the road to beat Arkansas.  Notre Dame’s best win is over Kentucky–impressive, but just slightly behind the Orange.

5. Maryland (13-1)–The Terps have the worst resume of the four 1 loss teams.  The best win is over Northwestern, who has never made a Big Dance.  Yep, never.

6. North Carolina State (12-2)–The Wolfpack have not lost in a long, long time.  Sunday’s game against Duke will be a big one.

7. Pittsburgh (12-3)–The Panthers were looking good at 12-1 with its only loss being to Michigan.  Then Pitt lost to Cincy and (gasp) Rutgers.  What happened to Pitt hoops?

8.Miami (10-3)–Miami has nice wins over Michigan State and now Georgia Tech.  Only losses were to Arizona and Indiana.  Looking pretty good.

9. Virginia (11-3)–The Wahoos would have been behind the Tar Heels, but Sunday’s head-to-head win solves that.  A nice win over Wisconsin helps offset some bad early losses.

10. North Carolina (10-4)–North Carolina has not looked like a typical North Carolina team this year.  10th place?

11.Georgia Tech (10-3)—The Yellow Jackets are rebounding nicely after a poor 2011-2012.  Still looking for a high quality win though.

12. Virginia Tech (9-5)–After starting 7-0, the Hokies have lost 5 of 7.  Not exactly murderer’s row either.

13. Florida State (9-5)–The Seminoles seem  to have righted the ship slightly.  Still hard to explain losses to South Alabama and Mercer.

14. Clemson (8-5)–The Tigers are going to have a tough season, end of story.  Playing for a NIT bid.

15. Boston College (8-6)–The Eagles already look better than last year’s version.  Will it be enough to get farther away from the cellar?  We’ll see.

16. Wake Forest (7-6)–The Demon Deacons do not have a truly awful loss.  But they should have a few more wins, given the schedule.

Right/wrong?  Disagree?  If not, let us know.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Football, Rankings and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
07 Jan 2013

ACC Football Rankings: January 7, 2013

This is particularly complex with Pitt and Syracuse not yet in the ACC, but it can still be done.  Next year, we’ll add in Louisville too.  Anyway, this is how the Confidential ranks the ACC football teams as of January 7, 2013:

1.  Florida State (12-2)–The Seminoles took care of business against Northern Illinois.  Only Florida and North Carolina State were able to trip up the Seminoles.

2. Clemson (11-2)–Clemson had itself a nice little season too, losing only to South Carolina and Florida State.  Improved on a very good 2011 season.

3. Syracuse (8-5)–The Orange demolished a good West Virginia team in the Pinstripe Bowl.  The five losses all came to bowl-eligible teams.

4. North Carolina (8-4)–The Tar Heels did get a bowl bid due to sanctions.  Still, this team looks to be on the rise.

5. Miami (7-5)–The Hurricanes once again missed out on a bowl to due self-imposed penalties.  Al Golden has the team pointed in the right direction though.

6. Virginia Tech (7-6)–The Hokies win over Rutgers in the Russell Athletic Bowl gives Virginia Tech the edge over North Carolina State.  The two schools did not play this year.

7. North Carolina State (7-6)–At 7-5, the Wolfpack fired their coach, Tom O’Brien.  And now they are 0-1 in the post-O’Brien era.  Nicely done.

8. Georgia Tech (7-7)–The Yellow Jackets were able to beat USC and its stable of NFL-ready talent.  A nice way to end the 2012 season.

9. Pittsburgh (6-7)—The Panthers were relegated to the BBVA Compass Bowl for the second year in a row.  Ole Miss handled them pretty well, winning 38-17.

10. Duke (6-7)–The Blue Devils beat North Carolina to move to 6-2 and bowl-eligibility.  They would never win again.

11. Wake Forest (5-7).

12. Virginia (4-8).

13. Maryland (4-8).

14. Boston College (2-10).

Do you agree with these rankings?  If not, let us know.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Football, Rankings and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
05 Jan 2013

Happy New Year!

The Confidential took a nice, long holiday break and celebrated its end with the flu.  Welcome to 2013!

Actually, 2013 looks to bring some significant changes to the Confidential.  In addition to general entries, the Confidential is looking to add a “corresponding contributor” for each school.  As this is gradually implemented, there should end up being a rather significant increase in content.  (And hopefully fewer slow periods for reasons like vacation and the flu!).  Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse, and Notre Dame correspondents are immediately welcome, even though formal addition to the ACC is in the future.  A Maryland correspondent is fine too–at least until the Terps head off to the Big 10.

As previously noted, if you are interested, please send an email to ezdozen@yahoo.com.  If you like to write, and care about your school, this is a chance to be a part of something pretty fun.

 

 

Posted by acaffrey in Uncategorized
02 Jan 2013

Call for Contributors

The Confidential is pondering a move to a different format for 2013.  Looking to add a contributing correspondent for each ACC school.  If you are interested, please send an email to ezdozen@yahoo.com.  If you have writing or blogging experience, please let us know.  Of course, experience is not nearly as important as being a sports-fanatic and diehard fan of your school.

Thanks!

Posted by acaffrey in Uncategorized
19 Dec 2012
3 Comments

Proposed ACC Divisions

With the recent addition of Louisville to replace Maryland, the word is that Louisville will just slot into Maryland’s position in the divisions.  What are those divisions?  Who knows?  The non-geographical distribution makes them impossible to remember.  In any event, the Confidential recommends the following divisions:

Atlantic (Coastal rival)

Boston College (NC State)

Wake Forest (Duke)

Syracuse (North Carolina)

Virginia Tech (Virginia)

Louisville (Clemson)

Pittsburgh (Georgia Tech)

Miami (Florida State)

In other words, this would be geographical, except that Wake Forest and Miami slide north and Virginia stays with the South.

The real loser here is Wake Forest, who loses games with its North Carolina-based rivals.  But this is just reality here–Wake Forest is in the worst negotiating position of all teams in the NCAA.  Even Iowa State has its own network now.  You can make arguments for every ACC school to be in some other conference.  But not Wake Forest.  So, with apologies to the Demon Deacons, they just need to suck it up.  Life isn’t fair.  Besides, they also get to be in a division with two private schools.

Virginia gets to be in the South, playing North Carolina and Virginia Tech every year.

Miami gets to play Syracuse and Boston College–Northern exposure every year for those schools.  Florida State gets to be with all Southern-based schools.  Rare trips up north.  Miami and Florida State will play every year.

Were UConn and Cincinnati to ever join… this could be tweaked as follows:

Atlantic (Coastal rival)

Boston College (Wake Forest)

Cincinnati (NC State)

Syracuse (Duke)

UConn (North Carolina)

Virginia Tech (Virginia)

Louisville (Clemson)

Pittsburgh (Georgia Tech)

Miami (Florida State)

Under this scenario, private schools are matched up again.  The basketball is slanted heavily towards the Atlantic.  But any division with Duke and North Carolina is always going to be tough.

In the Confidential’s view, doing whatever one it can to make the divisions logical and easy to remember behooves its short-term and long-term interests.  No matter how hard you try to make divisions competitively balanced, it will not work out perfectly.  So at least use logic and common sense.

What do you think?  Do you prefer the current set-up?  Different idea?

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference Realignment, Opinion and tagged , , , ,
18 Dec 2012

ACC Basketball Rankings: December 18, 2012

This is particularly complex with Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Syracuse not yet in the ACC, but it can still be done.  This is how the Confidential ranks the ACC basketball teams as of December 18, 2012:

1.  Duke (9-0)–The Blue Devils are sitting pretty at 9-0, with plenty of good victories.  An easy choice for #1.

2. Syracuse (10-0)–The Orange are 10-0, which is great.  Next up, Temple.  Congrats to Jim Boeheim on win #900 too.

3. Louisville (9-1)–So far, only #1 Duke has toppled Louisville.  With wins over Missouri and Memphis, Louisville has an argument to be #2.  But undefeated trumps one loss.

4.Notre Dame (10-1)—The Irish have now beaten Purdue and Kentucky.  That’s good enough for #4 here.

5. Pittsburgh (9-1)--The Panthers are off to a good start, but lacking a real quality win yet.   Only loss is to a very very good Michigan team.

6. Maryland (7-1)–The Terps have been good, losing only to Kentucky.  Still waiting on an impressive win though.  Northwestern is it right now.

7. Miami (6-1)–Not sure why Miami only has 7 games, but they have won 6 of them.  A bad loss, but a nice win over Michigan State.

8.North Carolina State (8-2)–The wins over Stanford and UConn look good.  The two losses are reasonable. 

9. North Carolina (8-2)–At 8-2, the Tar Heels really lack a quality win.  Losses to Butler and Indiana are understandable though.

10. Virginia (8-2)–10 through 12 are a toss-up.  The Wahoos have terrible losses early, but now have wins over Tennessee and Wisconsin.

11. Virginia  Tech (8-2)— Va Tech has ugly losses, but a great win–over Oklahoma State.  Gives them the slide edge over Georgia Tech.

12. Georgia Tech (7-2)–No shame in the two losses, but it’s hard to find even a decent win for the Yellow Jackets.  The worst of the two loss teams so far.

13. Clemson (6-3)–The Tigers have tough losses–Gonzaga, Illinois, and Arizona.  Clear edge over the rest.

14. Florida State (6-4)–At 6-4, the Seminoles are still the ACC’s disappointment so far.  Not sure what the deal is.

15. Wake Forest (5-5)–At least Wake is at .500.

16. Boston College (5-5)–At least BC is at .500.

Right/wrong?  Disagree?  If not, let us know.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Football, Rankings and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
18 Dec 2012

Nice Article About ACC’s Financial Picture

The Confidential will be light for the next week or so.  Sorry in advance.  There will not be many posts.

Here is a link to check out though.  The ACC might not be able to compete with the Big 10, but it sure is looking good overall.  According to this article, anyway.   Give it a read and let us know what you think.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference Realignment and tagged , ,
16 Dec 2012

ACC Goes Bowling: Duke vs. Cincinnati in the Belk Bowl

The bowl season began yesterday with a few battles flying well below the radar.  Moving beyond that mixed metaphor, however, it is time to begin analyzing the various bowl matchups featuring present and future members of the ACC.  Today’s featured matchup is the Belk Bowl, which will feature Duke and Cincinnati.  The game will be played at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 27.

How they got here (courtesy of http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/Sked2012.htm) :

Duke (ACC)
9/1 Sat vs. Florida International W 46 26
9/8 Sat @ Stanford L 13 50
9/15 Sat vs. North Carolina Central W 54 17
9/22 Sat vs. Memphis W 38 14
9/29 Sat @ *Wake Forest W 34 27
10/6 Sat vs. *Virginia W 42 17
10/13 Sat @ *Virginia Tech L 20 41
10/20 Sat vs. *North Carolina W 33 30
10/27 Sat @ *Florida State L 7 48
11/3 Sat vs. *Clemson L 20 56
11/17 Sat @ *Georgia Tech L 24 42
11/24 Sat vs. *Miami (Florida) L 45 52
12/27 Thu vs. Cincinnati @ Charlotte, NC Belk Bowl

6-6

 376 420

Cincinnati (Big East)
9/6 Thu vs. *Pittsburgh W 34 10
9/15 Sat vs. Delaware State W 23 7
9/29 Sat vs. Virginia Tech W 27 24 @ Landover, MD
10/6 Sat vs. Miami (Ohio) W 52 14
10/13 Sat vs. Fordham W 49 17
10/20 Sat @ Toledo L 23 29
10/26 Fri @ *Louisville L 31 34
11/3 Sat vs. *Syracuse W 35 24
11/10 Sat @ *Temple W 34 10
11/17 Sat vs. *Rutgers L 3 10
11/23 Fri vs. *South Florida W 27 10
12/1 Sat @ *Connecticut W 34 17
12/27 Thu vs. Duke @ Charlotte, NC Belk Bowl

9-3

 372 206

Key Stats:

PASSING YARDS

Cincinnati:  231.0 pg, 63rd Overall
Duke: 277.6 pg, 32nd Overall

RUSHING YARDS

Cincinnati: 199.8 pg, 32nd Overall
Duke: 119.0 pg, 107th Overall

POINTS FOR

Cincinnati: 31.0 pg, 48th Overall
Duke: 31.3 pg, 45th Overall

POINTS AGAINST

Cincinnati: 17.2 pg, 12th Overall

Duke: 35.0, 104th Overall
Analysis:
While the Confidential always likes to be a “homer” if possible.  So perhaps the analysis here is slanted by that.
Duke has played a much tougher schedule, but they lost many of the games against good opponents.  Often, by a lot.  Duke beat one bowl team, North Carolina.  Cincinnati beat three, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech.
But one factor favoring Duke in this game is that Cincy has lost its coach, Butch Jones.  We have seen Cincinnati (and many other teams) come out flat when playing a bowl game under such circumstances.  On the other hand, West Virginia rode Bill Stewart to a Fiesta Bowl victory and the removal of his interim head coach tag.  So even that one negative aspect is more of a question mark than certainty.
Another factor favoring Duke is the proximity to the location.  Duke fans should be relishing this opportunity to see the Blue Devils in this game.  They will have home field advantage.  Too much emotion on Duke’s side for this one.
Prediction:  Duke 28, Cincinnati 27.
Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Football, Predictions and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
13 Dec 2012
2 Comments

R.I.P. Big East

Well, the Confidential is all about the Atlantic Coast Conference.  That being said, there is no denying that the ACC has had a huge role in killing the Big East, taking Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, and Notre Dame in the past 10 years or so.  That’s a conference unto itself.  Thus, today’s news that the Big East will announce the exiting of more schools–the seven basketball-oriented, football-eschewing, Catholic schools–is met with some guilt.  That the Big East is dying is unfortunate.  Moving forward, however, the question is what happens next?

The general consensus is that the 7 Catholic schools will somehow, someway form a new conference.  It might be called the Big East.  It might be called something else.  Who knows?  The consensus also is that additional, similar schools will be invited.  If so, this is what the Confidential would like to see:

Catholic Basketball Conference–East: Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Georgetown, Villanova, Fordham

Catholic Basketball Conference–West: DePaul, Marquette, Creighton, St. Louis, Dayton, Xavier

If they wanted to get crazy, they could great a western flank, with Gonzaga, Loyolla Marymount, Santa Clara, and Portland, among others.  Either way, this would be the Catholic Basketball Conference–why not?

What about football?  What about football.  Yikes.  These are dark times for UConn, Cincinnati, USF, and Temple.  Newcomers UCF, SMU, Houston, Memphis, East Carolina, Tulane, and Navy are not too thrilled either.  While some of those schools may eventually get promoted to a top 5 conference, they cannot worry about that right now.

Without making a prediction, this is what the Confidential would like to see is two larger conferences form, centered around geography.  They can use the C-USA and MWC labels, as necessary.  It is important for the talent to be consolidated into two conferences so that there are more, better games.  This is the only way those schools will ever show any separation.  Remember, Boise State played a rather unimpressive schedule en route to national prominence.  It is up to these schools to schedule strong OOC and follow the same pattern.  If a small school in Boise, Idaho, can do it, any school can.

 

 

Posted by acaffrey in Conference Realignment, Opinion and tagged , ,

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