The Confidential

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Archive for the tag “ACC”

Defending Boston College

The recent records speak for themselves.  The Boston College Eagles have been terrible lately.  But ACC fans should not necessarily conclude that Boston College is not carrying its weight.  In fact, Boston College has more than carried its weight since joining the ACC 10 years ago.

First, the ugly.  The last few seasons for Boston College have been terrible.  Charles Barkley-esque “turrible.”  Just look at these recent records:

  • 2012-2013 Basketball: 16-17
  • 2012 Football: 2-10
  • 2011-2012 Basketball: 9-22
  • 2011 Football: 4-8

You do not need a calculator to understand that the Eagles have been awful.

But let’s not get carried away with Boston College’s recent woes.  Did you know:

  • Boston College has a winning record in football every year from 1999 to 2010?
  • From 2001 to 2007, Boston College’s basketball team finished in first place in the ACC and Big East three times, and never finished below 5th place in either conference?
  • That, as we recently noted, Boston College had the fifth best record of all ACC teams this past decade.
  • That, as we also recently noted, Boston College had the sixth best football record of all ACC teams this past decade.
  • Therefore, overall, Boston College has been the 5th best program in the ACC since joining, trailing only Florida State, Virginia Tech, Miami, and North Carolina in revenue sports performance.
  • Boston College has appeared in more ACC football championship games (2), than Miami, NC State, UNC, Virginia, Duke, Wake Forest, and Maryland combined (1).

So, while Boston College has fallen on hard times, just think of where they were before this recent sports drought?  In addition to opening up the Boston market to the ACC, the Eagles have more than held their own in the ACC.  And all of this while on an extreme geographic island without traditional rivals (like Syracuse and Pitt).

Capital One Cupdate – Duke #1, ACC leads top 10

Duke There is nothing better than winning championships, especially in revenue sports like football and basketball. However if doing well in the Capital One Cup (not to be confused with the Capital One Bowl) is important to you (Hi, Big Ten fans) then ACC fans and Athletic Directors should be very pleased with the latest updated scores. Read more…

Who Has Basketball’s Best Fan Base?

There are a lot of college basketball fans out there. There is no denying that Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky have large and crazy fan bases–but who has the best? There are several ways you can attempt to answer this question and not be wrong.

The Emory Sports Marketing Analytics released their top 10 list based on “fan equity.”  Number one on their list may come as a surprise to some, but not me, is Louisville. The ACC unsurprisingly leads the list with four teams in the top ten. Duke is third, North Carolina is fifth and Syracuse is eighth. What are your thoughts on the list?

See https://blogs.emory.edu/sportsmarketing/2013/05/29/college-basketball-recruiting-and-the-best-fan-bases/

The Road to Omaha Begins

Baseballs post season was set Monday afternoon and North Carolina incredible season was rewarded with the #1 national seed. The other national seeds in order are Vanderbilt, Oregon St, LSU, Cal St Fullerton, Virginia, Florida St and Oregon.

North Carolina (52-8) won its first regular season champion since 1990 and it’s coach Mike Fox’s program first #1 seed. They have been a top 8 seed 6 of the last 7 years. They are the only team in the nation that hasn’t lost consecutive games this season. They will open their bid to be the first top seeded team to win the championship since the 1999 Miami team against Canisius (42-15), who is making their first appearance in the tournament.

The Louisville Cardinals (46-12) will begin their quest to make it to Omaha for the first time since 2007 against Bowling Green (24-29) on Friday at 6pm. They missed out on a national seed but they will host the regional. Also in their region is future ACC foe Miami (36-23) who has made the tournament for a record 41st straight year.

The SEC led all conferences with a record-tying 9 bids. The ACC received 8 while the Pac 12 and Sun Belt received 4 bids each. The committee snubbed the Big East by handing out only 2 bids, to Louisville and UConn. Although the SEC received more bids, the ACC has the upper hand with 5 teams playing host, not including Louisville, while the SEC has only 4 teams hosting a regional. Also the ACC received more national seeds than the SEC, 3-2.

The tournament opens this Friday with 16 four team double-elimination regionals. Those winners will advance to next weeks best of 3 super regionals. The remaining 8 teams will then be broken down into 2 double-elimination brackets in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Here is a look at the regionals and super regional line up. Read more…

Detroit Lions adding a new bowl; ACC in the mix

It looks like the Big Ten Conference may finally get North Carolina and Virginia after all… but not as conference mates.

A few weeks back, The Confidential reviewed the future ACC bowl lineup. With four more teams entering the league, it was believed that the league might increase its bowl affiliations to nine or 10.

Brett McMurphy of ESPN is reporting that the Detroit Lions are looking to replace the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl after this season and operate a new bowl game at Ford Field starting in 2014.

The bowl will still feature a team from the Big Ten, but is expected to have an opponent from the ACC.

Read more…

ACC Baseball Tourney

The pools and games have been set for this years ACC Baseball Tournament.  With North Carolina being the top ranked team in the country almost the entire year and the ACC #1 conference RPI, this should be a very exciting tourney.

Pool A                                           Pool B
#1 North Carolina                     #2 Florida St
#4 NC State                                #3 Virginia
#5 Clemson                                #6 Virginia Tech
#8 Miami                                    #7 Georgia

Each team will play each other in their pool Here’s a look at the tournament schedule:

Read more…

ACC & The Olympics

You were probably expecting an article about how the ACC teams do in the non-revenue/Olympic sports.  After all, we devoted several posts to performance in the revenue sports.  See here, here, and here.  No, this article is much more simple.

Read more…

Revenue Sports Decade in Review

Last week, we analyzed the last decade of ACC performances in football and basketball.  There were some surprises.  For example, Boston College in football and Florida State in basketball.  But what does it mean overall?  How about a ranking of the performances of all schools in both sports?  Here you go.

Read more…

Men’s L-ACC-rosse: Duke beats ND, advances to Final Four

Image Regardless if you are a Duke fan, or a Notre Dame fan, Lacrosse fans in general were treated to a fantastic quarterfinal game that embodied what men’s lacrosse truly should be.

It was a physical game with countless hard hits, plenty of scores on both sides to keep the game tight, and an incredible effort right down to the final ticks of the clock. There is no love lost between this growing rivalry and Notre Dame was looking to avenge being knocked out of the tournament by Duke in 2 of the last 3 years. Read more…

ACC Basketball: A Decade in Review and Prediction for the New ACC

The ACC records for the last decade of football was posted by acaffrey earlier this week so I thought it would be fun to see the numbers for the basketball side of the conference.  I believe the biggest surprise over the last decade of ACC basketball has been the emergence of Florida State as the third winningest program in the conference behind Duke and North Carolina, a period that includes an ACC tournament championship for the Noles.

1. Duke 123-39 76%:  Arguable one of the most successful decades in conference history.  Duke has won at least 10 conference games in 9 of the last 10 years.  During the last decade Duke has won one NCAA title, 3 ACC Regular Season titles, and 6 ACC Tournament titles.

2. North Carolina 117-45 72%:  The baby blue (UNC) and navy blue (Duke) have dominated the conference in hoops.  Although Duke has a better conference record, North Carolina won 2 NCAA titles during the Roy Williams era (which started in 2003-04).  The Heels have also won 6 ACC Regular Season titles and 2 ACC Tournament titles during that time.

3.  Florida State 85-77 52%:  How in the world did the biggest name in ACC college football climb so high in the basketball centric ACC?  Leonard Hamilton.  Hamilton’s teams consistently play above their talent level through hard work and relentless defense.  However, FSU could be hit the hardest from the most recent conference expansion as the competition for 3rd place in the conference gets considerably tougher.

Read more…

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