The ACC is having plenty of trouble living up the hype before the season about being the best conference in football – and week two didn’t help.
When the first week of games for the 2017 season game to a close, the ACC was standing around wondering what the heck just took place. The conference struggled against its fellow Power Five competition – including losing all three games against the SEC, including FSU football dropping a decision to Alabama that we all would like to put out of our minds.
There was hope and promise that, with week two, the conference would be able to salvage itself and someone find a way to gain some respectability back. Yet, a funny thing apparently took place on the way to field this week – the ACC went in the wrong direction.
While the conference did get a win over the SEC this week, it came with the No. 3 ranked Clemson Tigers taking out No. 13 Auburn, so that’s not too much to cheer about since it was supposed to take place. Duke got a win over Big Ten member Northwestern, but Pitt got beatdown by the Big Ten’s Penn State and Virginia was upended at home by Indiana.
Then, there was what took place in Western New York…
You see, of all the bad things this week, none were worse that the Syracuse Orange dropping a 30-23 decision – to the fighting Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. That’s right, a team that was supposed to head to a bowl game and maybe give the powers in the Atlantic Division a battle gave up 21 points in the final 19 minutes of the game to lose to a Sun Belt team.
To be honest, it’s not all that bad that the ACC lost some of the games they have because that’s what was supposed to take place. The problem comes from the fact that this conference was built up so much heading into the season. Two teams, Florida State and Clemson, started in the top five and there was serious thought that both could make the playoffs.
Now, the problem comes that the ACC doesn’t have that many chances against the Power Five left to get credibility back. This week, Pittsburgh host No. 9 Oklahoma State while the following week Syracuse travels to current No. 12 LSU – neither games that the conference, on paper, should feel comfortable about.
Next: Thoughts on FSU's Opponents After Week Two Games
The ACC is still a great conference, don’t get me wrong, and still has a decent chance to get their champion in the playoff system. However, they have a long way to go to live up to all that talk before the season.