Give credit to Maryland on the gridiron, as they thumped Syracuse last Saturday. But those darn uniforms from a few weeks ago with the Star-Spangled Banner on them… the Confidential still cannot get over it. Just… look … at this abomination:
Even the shoes. Essentially tramping our national anthem! But it does make you wonder whether any other schools will rush to copy Maryland’s use of the written word on its uniform. And how.
There is no secret that Syracuse football head coach Scott Shafer wants the Orange to be a hard-nosed football team. Just do a search for Shafer and hard-nosed—see what you get. But after 3 games… does it really appear that this Syracuse football team is hard-nosed? Unfortunately, one can make a strong argument that it is not. And that starts at the top.
A favorite Saturday morning show growing up (before College football, natch) was Hannah-Barbera’s “Laff-a-Lympics” which featured a cadre of popular HB characters competing as teams in zany sporting competitions, races, and scavenger hunts.
The Confidential started to wonder…if the ACC were in the “Laff-a-lympics”, which characters would best represent the schools?
Here are just some of the matches that we could come up with: Read more…
When the ACC announced the conference was expanding to include Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame (kinda) everyone recognized that it would be an elite basketball conference. However, with the exception of the Confidential, very few realized just how dominant the conference would be in lacrosse.
Despite the pending loss of Maryland to the B1G, and a big whiff by not landing Johns Hopkins, the ACC continues to be the best lacrosse conference in the country, further evidenced by the All-ACC finals between defending Champion, Duke, and Notre Dame on Memorial Day at 1pm.
Duke defeated Denver 15-12 in the semis, while Notre Dame crushed Maryland 11-5 to advance to the finals.
Women’s lacrosse is no different, pairing one team new to the ACC (Syracuse) against one that is leaving (Maryland) in the Championship game. Syracuse defeated conference-mate, Virginia 16-8 to earn a spot in the finals, while Maryland surpassed Northwestern 9-6. The final game is scheduled for Sunday, May 25th at 8:30pm.
The best conference in lacrosse, the Atlantic Coast Conference, continues to impress. The latest top 20 for the men has all six schools ranked in the top 9. The fourth place team in the ACC, Notre Dame, is ranked fifth overall after winning the ACC tournament. Virginia, who was 1-4 in conference play, is ranked #8 overall. There is simply no precedent for such top-to-bottom conference domination.
That being said, it is Loyolla and Denver that are atop the standings at #1 and #2. and Johns Hopkins squeezes in between the ACC sextet at #6. It was quite a coup for the Big 10 to land Johns Hopkins–the Confidential still bemoans the ACC’s failure to do so. However, as lacrosse remains a non-revenue sport, there is only so much the conference could have or should have done in that regard.
There are few regular season games left for the ACC schools. on Saturday, there are a trio of games, as Notre Dame hosts #19 Army, Maryland hosts Navy, and Syracuse hosts Colgate. Duke travels to Boston on Sunday for its finale.
The women are similarly as impressive, with seven of the eight schools in the top 15. Of course, with Maryland #1, Syracuse #2, North Carolina #4, and Boston College #5, an argument can be made that the women are doing even better than the men.
All in all, the ACC is simply dominant in lacrosse. Let’s hope that the ACC can follow through on its dominant regular season by bringing home two trophies.
One of the great things about all sports is that the result unfolds in front of you. It is not an episode of… let’s just say… Law and Order… where there is an ending pre-written and you just wonder where someone has pre-ordained your emotions to go. No, when it is 8:50 p.m. for a game that starts at 7:00 p.m., the ending remains unknown. Unless, of course, one team has a lead that is insurmountable. Even then, however, there is still the potential for a “moment.” Each season will have some close games. The 2013-2014 edition of Syracuse basketball is seemingly only close games. Last night kept that streak of nailbiters, alive, with Syracuse returning to its winning ways, defeating Maryland 57-55.
An interesting point was made by acaffrey in the comments section of his recent article regarding potential division realignment in the ACC and the ramifications of moving to a schedule with 10 conference games.
The schools that pack their stadiums need 6 or 7 home games a year.
Coincidentally, I started compiling the attendance data for ACC home games just before the end of the regular season but never got around to completing a full post. So, it was a good reminder and a perfect opportunity to look deeper at which schools can boast the best attendance. Read more…
The Confidential has been saying for weeks now that the ACC had a great chance of getting 11 bowl-eligible teams and detailed the scenarios needed to make it happen. I’m very proud to report that the scenarios we projected occurred almost exactly to plan.
The good news is that, thanks to Syracuse’s win over Boston College to close out their regular season, the Orange are now 6-6 and are bowl eligible for the second consecutive year. Furthermore, the ACC can now boast that they have 11 teams that are eligible for post-season play. That’s a record for the Conference and matches the SEC’s best.
The bad news is that thanks to Clemson’s complete meltdown on National TV against their in-state rivals, the ACC is likely to only have 1 representative in the BCS. Granted that one representative will likely be Florida State in the National Championship Game, but losing out on a 2nd BCS team not only means lost revenue (approx. $18M) but also makes it more difficult to find bowl sites for the remaining 9 bowl eligible teams.
Worst of all, that means that there is a good chance that at least one bowl-eligible team from a Power Conference will not be invited to a bowl game this year. Currently Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina are all on the bubble. Read more…
Week 13 ended in the ACC and the bowl picture is one-step closer to being finalized. As this blog has been projecting for the past few weeks, the ACC is still on track to place 11 teams in post season play. Read more…
Last week, we looked at some of the scenarios that could play out to get 11 ACC teams in postseason play. And so far, the plan is coming to fruition.
With week 12 in the books, two more teams have clinched bowl eligibility bringing the total number of teams that will go bowling up to 8, with three more that are still fighting for the requisite six wins. Read more…
The Confidential 