Headlines: ACC Championships Post Expansion Scorecard

Brian: I stumbled upon an article on a Virginia Tech blog Tech SideLines that listed out all the VTech ACC Championships won post expansion. I was surprised to see that our fellow ACC interloper has already won 8 ACC championships across all sports. This got me thinking about how well BC has done in the ACC hardware department. Using some back of the envelope math and powered by the ACC website, check this out. What does this tell you? Think Gene is earning his pay?

	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008	TOTAL
1. Virginia	5	3	6	14
2. North Carolina	4	5	4	13
3. Florida State	4	3	4	11
3. Duke	5	4	2	11
5. Virginia Tech	0	4	4	8
6. NC State	1	3	0	4
6. Georgia Tech	2	2	0	4
8. Clemson	1	0	2	3
8. Miami	2	0	1	3
10. Wake Forest	0	2	0	2
10. Maryland	1	0	1	2
12. Boston College	0	0	1	1

Granted ice hockey isn't on here and we've won 2 of 3 Hockey East titles over this same span. Sailing isn't an ACC sport either. Sports included are cross-country, field hockey, soccer, football, swimming & diving, track & field, basketball, wrestling, golf, tennis, rowing, lacrosse, softball and baseball.

Jeff: Brian, I know you are disappointed with the reality you just discovered, but do not go starting a campaign against GDF. BC doesn't even compete in as many sports as these big state schools do. For example, we don't have varsity men's lacrosse where Virginia does. Also, as you pointed out, ice hockey is not an ACC sport. And finally, we have only been in the league 3 years.

Now why haven't we won a track and field title? Can you even tell me where the track and field team practices? No? I didn't think you could. How about wrestling? Oh wait, that is another sport we don't have. Now think about our golf team and tell me what recruit is going to come to BC versus going to Clemson or one of the Florida schools where they can play and practice outdoors all year round. Or maybe they'll go to Wake Forest where Arnold Palmer went to school. My point is that BC has focused on the major sports which is fine with me and they don't have the facilities to compete in Track and Field, nor the climate to compete in some other outdoor sports. BC will improve in these areas but we should never expect to be up there with UVA, FSU, or these other large schools. We need to try and compete with the likes of Wake Forest and Duke. Even Georgia Tech has a huge advantage over us because their swim team competes where the Olympics were held.

Brian: I'm not going to start a "Fire GDF" campaign over these numbers but this is still pretty pathetic. And don't give me the small, private school excuse. We're last in that group of schools as well - Duke, Wake, Miami and BC. We compete in more varsity sports (31) than any of these other schools. Virginia Tech has been in the league a year longer than us and they have 8 ACC titles.

And if you're going to give me the "quality over quantity" argument and say that we are only focused on the major sports, how is that working out for us? Sure, we have competed for championships in basketball and football since joining, and came within a bucket and a special teams disaster away from winning both, but still 0 championships. Also, your golf argument applies to the one sport BC has won an ACC championship in - soccer. I could use the same argument. Who wants to play soccer up north in the cold when you could play at National Champion Wake Forest or Duke?

Jeff: The golf up north argument is very different than the soccer argument. When was the last time you really didn't want to go run 5 miles just because its only 50 degrees out? Meanwhile, playing golf in 50 degree weather or below is not at all appealing. Also, once you get snow on the ground you can basically still do your entire off-season workout routine for soccer but not for golf.

Then aside from football and basketball, Wake Forest is dominant in golf, Duke is dominant in lacrosse, Miami I believe is pretty darn good in track and field, and BC dominates ice hockey. I agree that these numbers need to improve, but if you threw in hockey, BC is doing ok.