NCAA Sports Blog

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953, the ACC’s twelve member universities compete in twenty sports in the NCAA’s Division I. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two levels of Division I college football. 

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. The ACC added three members from the Big East during the 2003 cycle of conference realignment: Miami and Virginia Tech joined on July 1, 2004, and Boston College joined on July 1, 2005, as the league’s twelfth member and first from New England. The expansion was not without controversy, as Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia (and, initially, Virginia Tech) filed lawsuits against the ACC and against Miami and Boston College for conspiring to weaken the Big East.

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

Baseball

See Main Article: ACC Baseball Tournament

Basketball:

 

Historically, the ACC has been considered one of the most successful conferences in men’s 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.

 

Over the course of its existence, 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, Bones McKinney, Al Skinner, Lefty Driesell, Jim Valvano, Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Cremins, Rick Barnes, 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. Both 2006 NCAA women’s finalists were from the ACC, with Maryland defeating Duke for the title.

 

Today:

 

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.

 

The table below lists each school’s two permanent scheduling partners (effective through 2007-08 season).

 

Team	Partner 1	Partner 2
Boston College	Miami	Virginia Tech
Clemson	Georgia Tech	Florida State
Duke	North Carolina	Maryland
Florida State	Miami	Clemson
Georgia Tech	Clemson	Wake Forest
Maryland	Duke	Virginia
Miami	Boston College	Florida State
North Carolina	Duke	NC State
North Carolina State	North Carolina	Wake Forest
Virginia	Virginia Tech	Maryland
Virginia Tech	Virginia	Boston College
Wake Forest	NC State	Georgia Tech

 

Football:

 

Divisions

 

In 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, in Jacksonville, Florida, at the stadium then known as Alltel Stadium. 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, each column represents one division. Each team’s “permanent rival” is listed immediately to the left or right in the other column. (These are 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

 

National Championships

 

Though the NCAA does not determine an official “national champion” for Division I FBS football, several ACC members have achieved a national championship through the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll or the Bowl Championship Series. Schools that have won national championships in this manner as ACC members include:

 

    * Associated Press National Champions:

          o Clemson: 1981

          o Florida State: 1993, 1999

          o Maryland: 1953

    * Coaches Poll National Champions:

          o Clemson: 1981

          o Florida State: 1993, 1999

          o Georgia Tech: 1990

          o Maryland: 1953

    * Bowl Championship Series National Champions

          o Florida State: 1999 

Bowl Games

    * 1 - BCS (exclusive partnership with the FedEx Orange Bowl)

    * 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 - Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho (vs WAC) 

Within the Bowl Championship Series, the FedEx Orange Bowl serves as the home of the ACC champion against another BCS at-large selection unless the conference’s champion is selected for the national championship game. 

The other bowls pick ACC teams in the order listed above. Under ACC rules as of the 2006 season, 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 rule was instituted in response to concerns over the 2005 ACC bowl season, in which Atlantic Division co-champion Boston College fell to the last-pick MPC Computers Bowl. 

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). The University of Virginia has won four national championships (1972, 1999, 2003, and 2006), the University of North Carolina has also won four (1981, 1982, 1986, and 1991), 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). 

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, 1992, 1993, 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. Virginia and Wake Forest advanced to the College Cup - the “Final Four” of Men’s soccer. 

In women’s soccer, North Carolina has won 18 of the 25 NCAA titles since the NCAA crowned its first champion (1982-1984, 1986-1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2006), as well as the only AIAW soccer championship in 1981. The Tar Heels have also won 18 of the 20 ACC tournaments, losing only to NC State in 1988 and UVA in 2004, both times by penalty kicks.

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.