Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich
On the surface, it looks great. The ACC won eight of its nine games today. Wake Forest beat Stanford, UNC beat Connecticut on the road. Everyone came out on the winning end except for Virginia, and considering the Cavs lost to William & Mary a week ago and TCU is a legit top 20 team, that's no surprise.
Wins are wins, and the ACC will take them.
But college football fans aren't fooled. They know how poorly Maryland and Florida State played in near losses to FCS teams. They know Virginia waited until late in the fourth quarter to show any signs of offense. They know that UNC hung on by a thread with a safety, and Wake had to come from behind before it could exhale.
Those are not "convincing wins," and for teams like Maryland and FSU, they're reason for concern. Tougher opponents remain, and some of them are in the conference -- Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech. Despite the overall winning record today, the final two performances -- Florida State and Maryland -- will still leave a smudge on the ACC's image. NC State and Virginia Tech both left no question they've moved on from their season opening losses, and that's a good sign. But they did what they were supposed to do against unheralded opponents.
It obviously could've been a lot worse today, but despite the overall record, it doesn't feel like ACC fans should be comfortable with it.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Heather Dinich
Dinich covered ACC and Big Ten football for five seasons before joining ESPN.com in November 2007. She's an Indiana grad but somehow her favorite day of the week is Saturday.
