In a weekend full of football upsets, Duke's win over Georgia Tech and North Carolina's victory over Wake Forest may have gone relatively unnoticed, but they are more important than you think.
What do these two seemingly trivial victories mean?
In the short run, a Virginia victory over Maryland this Thursday, combined with a North Carolina State loss to the Seminoles this weekend, would catapult the Cavaliers into a tie for second place in the ACC.
If Virginia can run the table against the Terps and the two Techs (Georgia and Virginia), the 'Hoo faithful may find themselves punching a ticket for a New Year's Day bowl rather than an icy invitation to Idaho.
In the long run, the victories by the Blue Devils and Tar Heels represent a larger problem facing these two Tobacco Road schools. It has been well-documented that the administrations (and basketball coaches) of UNC and Duke were adamantly opposed to the upcoming ACC expansion, fearful that the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College would jeopardize the conference's reputation as one of the best basketball conferences in the nation and instead have the ACC transformed into a football-dominated league. They were right.
If Duke and UNC do not establish themselves as at least decent football programs, their existence in the ACC may not be as long-lasting as they desire. You think such an assertion sounds unrealistic? Just hear me out.
All of the conference-swapping that has transpired over the past several months--with the ACC taking from the Big East, the Big East stealing from Conference USA, Conference USA raiding the MAC and so on and so forth--has one common denominator: football.
Every conference around the nation is trying to solidify itself as a football power, a "have" in the NCAA power structure. Just ask TCU what its like to be a football "have not." Your local Congressmen might even call the current system "unAmerican" --- as unAmerican as capitalism if you ask me. Even our own Al Groh is doing everything he can to make Virginia a "football school." With the new ACC embracing the idea of becoming a more football-oriented conference, one-trick ponies such as Duke and UNC may find themselves on the outside looking in sooner than they think. Do you believe the football superpowers of Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech want the likes of Duke and North Carolina reaping the benefits of monster-television contracts without ever competing for a bowl invitation?
One only needs to look at the current SEC and listen to the recent rumblings over Vanderbilt's association with the nation's deepest football conference. But even Vanderbilt in the SEC and Baylor in the Big 12 have managed to win a conference game in the last four years. Duke finally broke their thirty-game conference-losing streak Saturday while North Carolina racked up their first victory of the season against a team not named East Carolina.
Both schools have also made news recently regarding their current football coaching situations. At Duke, Carl Franks was fired midway through the season and the Blue Devil athletic department has reiterated that the search for a permanent replacement is still ongoing. Realizing that the conference dynamic is rapidly shifting, Duke now acknowledges they must make a real attempt at establishing a football program that can survive in the expanded ACC and is searching for a big name coach to build such a foundation.
In the Nov. 4 edition of the Cavalier Daily, the lead sports story was the possibility of Redskin coach Steve Spurrier returning to the college ranks and possibly even going to North Carolina. Although such rumors are purely that, rumor, they do symbolize a recognition that North Carolina must also begin to rebuild a football program that has fallen to pieces. Spurrier would undoubtedly be an ideal candidate.
No matter who Duke and North Carolina anoint as their football savior, each man will have a tough road ahead of him. With basketball as the dominant sport at each institution, football is a tough sell when competing with the sunny beaches of southern Florida. Do not be surprised if in 15 or 20 years, barring a rise to football mediocrity, the ACC leaves Duke and UNC out in the cold. Duke already seems a better fit with the new Big East "basketball only division" then with the football big boys of the expanded ACC. Same goes for UNC.
Not possible because of tradition, you say? When it came to the most recent round of expansion and even with the addition of Florida State a decade ago, tradition was no where to be found. Instead, football was there calling the shots, just as it will continue to be.
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