The Confidential is proud to add a new link to the sidebar: Laxpower.com. After last week’s very popular article regarding the future of lacrosse, the Confidential stumbled on this website. It has just about everything a lacrosse fan could want.
After trailing Rice 4-1 in the ninth inning, NC State came back to tie the game on Jake Fincher’s double and took the lead for good in the top of the 17th when Brett Williams doubled in Taran Senay. And with that, the Wolfpack punched their ticket to Omaha for the College World Series for the first time since 1968. Ethan Ogburn pitched the last 5 innings and got the win for the Pack, allowing three hits and no runs during that span. And no, this correspondent was unable to stay awake for all of it, giving up during the rain delay and delaying his elation until checking the score this morning.
With the win, the Wolfpack awaits the result of the Chapel Hill Super Regional between UNC and South Carolina, currently deadlocked at 1-1.
Other ACC team results:
Clemson: Eliminated in Regionals
Virginia Tech: Eliminated in Regionals
Georgia Tech: Eliminated in Regionals
Miami: Eliminated in Regionals
Florida State: Upset by Indiana 2-0 in Super Regional
Virginia: Tied 1-1 with Mississippi State in Super Regional
Futures:
Louisville: Advanced to CWS with upset sweep of Vanderbilt
As we noted last week, followers and non-followers of this blog can now get weekly updates of the blog entries. Well, here is the first such entry:
If you are a fan of college football, then you are at least slightly interested in how players from your favorite school fare in the NFL. Perhaps you are even a big fan of the NFL too. Did you know which schools have placed the most players in the NFL Hall of Fame?
Here is the top 10 list, as per the best source we have–the NFL Hall of Fame itself:
That’s right. Miami, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame.
Not Florida State, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Virginia Tech. You do not see the Big 10’s Wisconsin, Michigan State, Maryland, Rutgers, or Nebraska. You do not see the SEC’s Florida, Auburn, Georgia, or L.S.U. You do not even see the Big XII’s Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, or even Texas.
Just recent additions to the ACC, courtesy of the now-destroyed Big East.
Recently, the ACC had a very good NFL draft in 2013. Looking backward, who are the Hall of Famers, by school, from the ACC? Here you go:
So there you have it. The ACC has put quite a few people into the NFL Hall of Fame, led mostly by teams that are new to the ACC fold.
By the way, who has been to Canton? Did you like the NFL Hall of Fame or find it disappointing?
For all those Cardinals fans who look at the upcoming football schedule and yawns, you should take the opportunity to take a breath. When Louisville joins the ACC in 2014 the football schedule is going to be unbelievable. While the 2013 schedule lacks the marquee names the 2014 schedule and beyond are full of them.
By now, we have all heard that Johns Hopkins is going to the Big 10. Some folks are really happy, such as the Frank the Tank faithful. As they should be. As a preface, there should be no illusion that this is a disaster for the ACC. This is not the conference apocalypse. There should not be any wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But it is kind of bad news, right?
Here is why.
The regionals are complete and now its on to the super regionals. This is the last stop before Omaha and the College World Series. So far there hasn’t been any real surprises this year, aka Kent State last year. There has been only two upsets with the biggest being Oregon, who was the #8 national seed, being knocked out by Rice. The other is Virginia Tech being knocked out by Oklahoma. Top national seed North Carolina was taken to extra innings by Fla Atlantic in an elimination game but other than that it has been chalk.
The ACC will have their four remaining teams play host in the super regionals while Louisville, a future ACC member, has also earned a spot. The SEC also has four teams remaining but only two of them will be hosting. The Big 12 and the Pac 12 each has two teams remaining. The next round of games will be a beast of three series which will run from Friday, June 7 until Monday, June 10.
Here is a run down on the super regionals.
ESPN is reporting, and it now seems all over the Internet, that Johns Hopkins will be joining the Big 10 as an associate member. The Confidential had advocated for JHU to join, so this is a disappointment. Props to the Big 10 for getting it done. This is a win-win for both the B1G and JHU.
For 2015, the Big 10 lacrosse teams will be JHU, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. That is a reasonable conference membership. Not the uber-conference that the ACC would have been with JHU, but good enough. And it might be better for lacrosse as a whole for this relationship to move forward.
This leaves a dilemma for the ACC. Where do they go for the 6th conference member? Do they even need one? Let us know what you think.
Trying to catch up on a few things after the fine Syracuse run through the NCAA lax tournament. Getting crushed at the faceoff x was bound to catch up. This Syracuse team overachieved all season and almost pulled off another National Championship.
The Atlantic Coast Confidential understands that not everyone wants to be an official “follower,” which entitles you to receive an email every time there is a new blog entry.
As such, the Confidential is creating a mailing list for semi-followers, who will receive a weekly email with links to all of the various blog entries of the past week. This is a happy medium. Actually, some of our existing followers may want to sign-up anyway, just to make sure that they did not miss a great blog post.
If you are interested in signing up, please do so in the upper, right-hand corner of this page: http://www.mysharedpage.com/acc-sports-weekly. You’ll have to confirm the sign-up. Check your SPAM folder if you do not receive promptly.
Of course, if you ever want to be removed from the list [i.e. if your team joins the Big 10 (sad emoticon) or gets the Temple treatment (smiley face)], just send an email to afc44enterprises@yahoo.com.
Interestingly, for this post, we thought it would be neat to note the most popular blog entries from the past week:
This satirical post dominated the readership this past week. Correspondent: Matt Caffrey
A general criticism of the entire Rutgers, athletic director issue. Not a banner week for Rutgers.
The third most popular blog entry of the week was this tongue-in-cheek look at the American’s new logo.
Thanks to everyone who helped make these, and other blog entries, popular on the Internet.
GO ACC!
The Confidential 