Atlantic Coast Conference
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| Atlantic Coast Conference | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Data | |
| Classification | NCAA Division I-A |
| Established | 1953 |
| Members | 12 |
| Sports fielded | 20 |
| NCAA championships |
97 |
| NCAA men's titles | 116 |
| NCAA women's titles | 57 |
| Commissioner | John Swofford |
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is one of the oldest collegiate athletic leagues in the United States. Founded in 1953, the ACC's twelve member universities compete in twenty sports in the NCAA's Division I.
Contents |
[edit] History
Charter members of the ACC were Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest. The seven ACC charter members had been aligned with the Southern Conference, but left primarily due to the league's ban on postseason play. After drafting a set of bylaws for the creation of a new league, they formally withdrew from the Southern Conference at the Spring Meeting on the morning of May 8, 1953. The bylaws were ratified and the ACC officially came into existence on June 14, 1953. On December 4, 1953, officials convened in Greensboro, North Carolina and admitted Virginia into the conference.
In 1971, the ACC lost a member in the University of South Carolina, now a member of the Southeastern Conference. The ACC operated with seven members until the addition of former Southeastern Conference member Georgia Tech from the Metro Conference, on April 3, 1978. The addition of Florida State, also from the Metro Conference, on July 1, 1991, brought the total to nine. In 2003's cycle of conference alignment, the ACC added three more members, all from the Big East: Miami and Virginia Tech joined on July 1, 2004, and Boston College joined on July 1, 2005 as the league's twelfth member.
[edit] Basketball
The early roots of ACC basketball began primarily thanks to two men: Everett Case and Frank McGuire.
North Carolina State coach Everett Case had been a successful high school coach in Indiana who ironically accepted the Wolfpack's head coaching job at a time that the school decided to focus on competing in football with Duke University, then a national power in college football. Case immediately started winning and became the fastest college basketball coach to reach many win milestones; records that are still relevant today as coaches like Roy Williams and Bruce Pearl chase Case's "first coach to win x amount of games" milestones.
Case became known as “the grandfather of ACC basketball." Despite his success on the court, he may have been even a better promoter off the court. Case realized the need to sell his program and university. That is why he organized the funding and construction of Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh as the new home court for his team. At the time, Reynolds was the largest on-campus arena in America, and it was therefore used as the host site for many Southern Conference Tournaments, ACC Tournaments, and the “Dixie Classic”, an annual event involving the four ACC teams from North Carolina as well as four other prominent programs from across the nation. The Dixie Classic brought in huge revenues for all schools involved and soon became one of the premier sporting events in the south.
At the University of North Carolina, Frank McGuire was hired as the men’s basketball coach to counter Case's personality, as well as the dominant success of his program. McGuire began recruiting in his home area of New York. McGuire knew that basketball was the major high school athletic event of the region, unlike football in the south. Case and McGuire literally “invented” a rivalry. Both men realized the benefits created through a rivalry between them. It brought more national attention to both of their programs and increased fan support on both sides. For this reason, they often exchanged verbal jabs at each other in public, while maintaining a secret working relationship in private.
In 1957, when McGuire’s North Carolina team won the national championship, an entrepreneur from Greensboro named Castleman D. Chesley noticed the popularity it generated. He developed a five-station television network which began broadcasting regular season ACC games the following season. From that point on, ACC basketball gained immense popularity.
[edit] Members
| Institution | Location | Established | Joined ACC | School type | Undergraduate Enrollment | Varsity sports | NCAA championships (excludes football*) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston College | Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts | 1863 | 2005 | Private | 9,019 | 31 | 2 | |
| Clemson University | Clemson, South Carolina | 1889 | 1953 | Public | 13,959 | 19 | 3 | |
| Duke University | Durham, North Carolina | 1838 | 1953 | Private | 6,259 | 26 | 8 | |
| Florida State University | Tallahassee, Florida | 1851 | 1991 | Public | 30,206 | 19 | 5 | |
| Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) | Atlanta, Georgia | 1885 | 1979 | Public | 11,624 | 17 | 0 | |
| University of Maryland | College Park, Maryland | 1856 | 1953 | Public | 24,876 | 27 | 19 | |
| University of Miami | Coral Gables, Florida | 1925 | 2004 | Private | 10,132 | 17 | 5 | |
| University of North Carolina | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | 1789 | 1953 | Public | 16,278 | 28 | 31 | |
| North Carolina State University | Raleigh, North Carolina | 1887 | 1953 | Public | 20,546 | 25 | 2 | |
| University of Virginia | Charlottesville, Virginia | 1819 | 1953 | Public | 13,387 | 25 | 15 | |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) | Blacksburg, Virginia | 1872 | 2004 | Public | 21,534 | 21 | 0 | |
| Wake Forest University | Winston-Salem, North Carolina | 1834 | 1953 | Private | 4,231 | 18 | 7 | |
| * Division I-A football is the only sport for which the NCAA does not sponsor a championship. Instead, major-college football championships are sponsored by various third parties, such as the Bowl Championship Series and the Associated Press. The championship totals presented in this table do not include football championships. | ||||||||
[edit] Sports
Member universities compete in the following sports:
- Baseball
- Men's Basketball
- Women's Basketball
- Cross Country
- Field Hockey
- Football
- Men's Golf
- Women's Golf
- Men's Lacrosse
- Women's Lacrosse
- Rowing
- Men's Soccer
- Women's Soccer
- Softball
- Swimming & Diving
- Men's Tennis
- Women's Tennis
- Track & Field
- Volleyball
- Wrestling
[edit] Basketball
Historically, the ACC has been considered one of the most successful conferences in men's basketball. ACC schools have captured 10 NCAA championships. North Carolina has won four (1957, 1982, 1993, 2005), Duke has won three (1991, 1992, 2001), N.C. State has won two (1974, 1983) and Maryland has won one (2002). In addition, 8 of the 12 members have advanced to the Final Four at least once. The ACC has been home to many legendary coaches, including Terry Holland Everett Case, Frank McGuire, Vic Bubas, Dean Smith, Norm Sloan, Lefty Driesell, Jim Valvano, Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Cremins, Gary Williams, and Roy Williams.
In women's basketball, the ACC has won two national championships: North Carolina in 1994 and Maryland in 2006. In 2006, Duke, Maryland, and North Carolina all advanced to the Final Four, the first time a conference placed three teams in the women's Final Four. The 2006 NCAA women's finalists were also both from the ACC, with Maryland defeating Duke for the title.
With the expansion to 12 teams in the 2004-2005 season, the ACC schedule could no longer accommodate a home-and-away series between every pair of teams each season. In the new scheduling model, each team is assigned two permanent partners and nine rotating partners over a three-year period. Teams play their permanent partners in a home-and-away series each year. The rotating partners are split into three groups: three teams who are played in a home-and-away series, three teams who are played at home, and three teams who are played on the road. The rotating partner groups are rotated over the three-year period.
[edit] Football
Though the NCAA does not determine an official "national champion" for Division I-A football, the ACC has had members win national championships as determined by the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll and the Bowl Championship Series, they are:
- Associated Press National Champions:
- Clemson: 1981
- Florida State: 1993, 1999
- Maryland: 1953
- Coaches Poll National Champions:
- Clemson: 1981
- Florida State: 1993, 1999
- Georgia Tech: 1990
- Maryland: 1953
- Bowl Championship Series National Champions
- Florida State: 1999
As of 2005, the ACC began divisional play in football. Division leaders compete in a playoff game to determine the ACC championship. The inaugural ACC Championship Game was played on December 3, 2005 at ALLTEL Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. Florida State defeated Virginia Tech to capture their 12th championship since they joined the league in 1992. This division structure leads to each team playing the following games:
- Five games within its division (one against each opponent)
- One game against a "permanent rival" from the other division
- Two rotating games against teams in the other division
In the table below, the teams are listed in columns by division, and horizontally paired by permanent cross-divisional rivalry (not necessarily the school's closest traditional rival).
| Atlantic Division | Coastal Division |
|---|---|
| Boston College | Virginia Tech |
| Clemson | Georgia Tech |
| Florida State | Miami |
| Maryland | Virginia |
| N.C. State | North Carolina |
| Wake Forest | Duke |
[edit] Bowl Games
The bowl lineup as of the 2006 season, in order of selection (which can be based on any criteria the bowls choose, within the new parameters set by the ACC as of the 2006 season):
- 1 – BCS (exclusive partnership with the FedEx Orange Bowl*[1])
- 2 – Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly Peach Bowl) in Atlanta, Georgia (vs SEC)
- 3 – Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida (vs Big East, the Big 12 or Notre Dame)
- 4 – Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Florida (vs Big 10)
- 5 – Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee (vs SEC)
- 6 – Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina (vs Big East or Navy)
- 7 – Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, California (vs Pac-10)
- 8 – MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho (vs WAC)
A new agreement for bowl selection was set by the ACC during their preseason media day and annual Kickoff news conference on July 25, 2006. The rules set new parameters for how teams would be selected as well as officially swapped the picks for the Chick-Fil-A and Gator Bowls. Under the new agreement, the ACC championship game loser cannot fall below the Music City Bowl (5th pick). Furthermore, a bowl game can bypass a team in the selection process only if the two teams in question are within one game of each other in the overall ACC standings. This was done in response to concern over selections in the 2005 ACC bowl season when the Atlantic Division co-champion, Boston College, fell to the last-pick MPC Computers Bowl. A newly agreed partnership was announced with the FedEx Orange Bowl, which will be the home of the ACC champion against another BCS at-large selection (the only exception to this would be an instance in which the ACC champion plays in the BCS National Championship Game and the conference does not field an additional at-large school bid).
[edit] Lacrosse
Since 1971, when the first men's national champion was determined by the NCAA, the ACC has won 10 national championships (as of 2006). North Carolina has won four national championships (1981, 1982, 1986, and 1991), the University of Virginia has won four (1972, 1999, 2003 and 2006), and the University of Maryland has won two (1973, and 1975).
Women's Lacrosse, a sport in which the national champion has only been determined since 1982, has seen much dominance by the ACC, specifically by The University of Maryland. In all, the ACC has won 12 women's national championships. The University of Maryland accounts for nine of those championships (1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), and the University of Virginia won the other three (1991, 1993, and 2004).
[edit] Soccer
In men's soccer, the ACC has won 11 national championships, including 10 in the 22 seasons between 1984 and 2005. Five have been won by Virginia (1989, 1991–1994). The remaining six have been won by Maryland (1968, 2005), Clemson (1984, 1987), Duke (1986), and North Carolina (2001). During the 2006 season, each of the nine ACC men's soccer teams was in the top 25. Seven teams were selected for the NCAA Tournament.
Since women's soccer became a collegiate sport in 1982, the North Carolina has won 18 of the 25 national titles since the NCAA crowned its first champion (1982–1984, 1986–1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2006).
[edit] Facilities
[edit] Rivalries
As with most ACC traditions, the conference's classic rivalries began on the (men's) basketball court. Before the 2003 expansion, the ACC was able to maintain a full home-and-home double round-robin basketball schedule, meaning each team played each other team both at home and away each season. Coupled with the conference's geographic compactness (especially before Florida State joined in 1991), this enhanced conference cohesiveness and built a strong, interlocking web of rivalries, as each school could generally find something historical to be upset with each other school about. Some rivalries were, of course, stronger than others — notably those among the four "Tobacco Road" schools located in North Carolina.
Lesser-known are the ACC's football rivalries, with the exception of Florida State-Miami. With the recent expansion, intra-state rivalries in Florida and Virginia that have always been more significant in football than basketball are now under the conference banner. This gives them added meaning, as these games will have more direct impact on postseason bowl game invitations.
[edit] Intra-conference rivalries
- Boston College and Miami: These two former Big East colleges have a heated rivalry dating back to the "Hail Flutie" game in 1984.
- Clemson and Georgia Tech: In football, this series has been very close of late. Between 1996 and 2005, 9 of the 10 games were determined by fewer than 7 points. This rivalry is also born out of their proximity (approximately 100 miles).
- Clemson and N.C. State: Known as the "Textile Bowl" in football.
- Clemson and Florida State: Known as "the Bowden Bowl"; a newer rivalry in college football pitting head coaches/father and son, Bobby Bowden and Tommy Bowden against one another.
- Duke and Maryland: Traditionally a basketball rivalry; reached heightened status in the 2000-01 season when the teams played four times in ESPN "Instant Classics." Each school won a national championship in 2001(Duke) and 2002(Maryland).
- Duke and North Carolina: Their basketball rivalry is widely considered the best in the country. See UNC-Duke rivalry.
- Duke and Wake Forest: The two private Big Four schools on Tobacco Road have shared a heated rivalry for decades. Wake Forest and Duke were the first colleges in North Carolina to have basketball teams in the early 1900's.
- Florida State and Miami: Arguably the two most successful college football teams of the last 25 years.
- Georgia Tech and Virginia: Known to Georgia Tech football fans as "41-38."
- Maryland and Virginia: A border rivalry with mid-Atlantic football recruiting implications.
- Miami and Virginia Tech: Both schools were football powers in the Big East and the rivalry has continued with both of them moving to the ACC.
- North Carolina and N.C. State: In-state rivals of long standing; formerly competed (with Duke and Wake Forest) in the annual "Dixie Classic" basketball tournament ending in 1961.
- North Carolina and Virginia: In football, known as the Oldest Rivalry in the South.
- North Carolina and Wake Forest: Another Tobacco Road rivalry, Wake and Carolina have been at it longer than any other two North Carolina schools. The schools first met on Oct. 18, 1888 when Wake Forest defeated North Carolina 6-4 in the first intercollegiate football game played in North Carolina. As with all Big Four rivalries--and each of the four hates the other three--Wake and Carolina have shared a colorful history.
- Virginia and Virginia Tech: Compete for the Commonwealth Cup in football.
[edit] Extra-conference rivalries
- Boston College and Boston University (Hockey East): Hockey's "Green Line Rivalry"
- Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, and Northeastern: Hockey's "Beanpot"
- Boston College and Providence College ( Big East): Former Big East basketball and current Hockey East rivals, they are two of the prominent Catholic New England colleges.
- Boston College and Notre Dame (Independent): Football's "Holy War"
- Clemson and South Carolina (SEC): Natural arch-rivals based in the state of South Carolina. Prior to 1971, this was an intra-conference rivalry in the ACC.
- Clemson and Georgia (SEC): Born of proximity, as the schools are approximately 90 miles apart.
- Duke and Kentucky (SEC): Although they have met only 19 times, five meetings have come in the NCAA tournament. One such meeting was the 1992 NCAA Tournament East Regional Finals game, considered by many to be the greatest college basketball game ever played.
- Florida State and Florida (SEC): a football rivalry with Florida Cup implications
- Georgia Tech and Georgia (SEC): "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate" Prior to 1964, this was an intra-conference rivalry in the SEC.
- Georgia Tech and Auburn (SEC)
- Maryland and Johns Hopkins: These schools have a long-held bitter rivalry in men's lacrosse.
- Maryland and the United States Naval Academy (independent): An intra-state rivalry rich in history. Dating back to the late 19th century and dormant since the mid-1960s, the "Crab Bowl" was renewed and played again in 2005.
- Maryland and Penn State (Big Ten): Dormant since the early 1990s because of expansion by the ACC and Big Ten, there have been talks to renew the series. Like the Maryland-Virginia rivalry, this also has recruiting implications.
- Maryland and West Virginia (Big East): The football series was formerly the longest current continuous non-conference series for both schools, as they played every year since 1980. The game is not scheduled for 2008 or 2009, but will resume in 2010.
- Miami and Florida (SEC): A now seldom scheduled game with Florida Cup implications. The game is seldom scheduled because teams were only allowed three non-conference games, and the Gators would have only one "true" non-conference game if they had to play both the Seminoles and Hurricanes in the same season.
- North Carolina and Kentucky (SEC): The two winningest programs in men's college basketball.
- Virginia Tech and West Virginia (Big East): The teams used to play for the Black Diamond Trophy.
- NC State and East Carolina (Conference USA): A football rivalry that started in the 1980's.
Since the 1999-2000 season, ACC teams have played Big Ten teams in the annual ACC - Big Ten Challenge men's basketball tournament; the ACC has "won" this tournament every year since its inception (ACC teams have won a majority of the games played in every season).
[edit] See also
- ACC Athlete of the Year
- ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year
- List of Atlantic Coast Conference football champions
- List of Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball regular season champions
- List of Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament champions
- List of Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball regular season champions
[edit] External links
| Atlantic Coast Conference |
|---|
| Boston College • Clemson • Duke • Florida State • Georgia Tech • Maryland • Miami • North Carolina • North Carolina State • Virginia • Virginia Tech • Wake Forest |
| NCAA Division I-A Football Conferences: |
| Atlantic Coast Conference* – Big 12 Conference* – Big East Conference* – Big Ten Conference* – Conference USA – Mid-American Conference – Mountain West Conference – Pacific Ten Conference* – Southeastern Conference* – Sun Belt Conference – Western Athletic Conference – Independents |
| * – BCS Conference |
