I am watching Tech and Clemson from 1999. My question isnt just because of this game. It is just me remembering the conference back then. We dominated UGA for three years. FSU was great. Many other ACC teams were consistently good. The ACC was the place to be during that time. What has happened? I know Gailey hurt us at Tech which was a bad hire after the disappointing loss of Oleary. What else is the source of decline? I have read from insiders on Rivals that the SEC spends alot more on recruiting than the ACC. Is that not something the Acc can fix? I have heard that Tech is fixing to offer more courses and spend more on assistant coaches in order to bring in better recruits.
When we added Miami, VT, and BC I was very excited. That hasnt paid off. Who has the answers? Who has done the research?
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You must have incredibly selective memory. Looking to Sagarin's rankings by conference since 1998, it's clear that the ACC was never the place to be. We had a single representative in the elite schools (FSU). There was a shuffling of a couple schools in and out of the top 25. There were typically 3 good teams - not much unlike it is now.
Our "domination" of uga is clearly the exception, not the rule. Look at our record in the 20-30 years before and since.
A good Miami and BC would do nothing but make it harder for us to compete. We are having a hard enough time as is.
It's a combination of (1) $$$ (to me it's not the TV contracts but the facts that our fans suck); (2) coaching (as a result of the $$, our assistants and coordinators aren't as good); (3) recruiting (less money and worse assistants and worse atmosphere = poor recruiting).
The main thing to me is it starts with us. If GT averaged 85k a game and was the place to be in Atlanta, we'd have a ton more money, could spend it on better coaches, and as a result of both of those things get better recruits. People always blame GT academics for why we don't get recruits. Not so. It's because, given the option, players are going to want to play in front of 90k people, not 40k. If we had more and better fans most of our problems would take care of themselves.
1998 - ACC is 6th. Besides #3 FSU, we have #21 GT, #22 uva, and #38 NC St. No other team is in the top 40. Beside North Carolina (#45), no other team is in the top 70. Clemson is a monstrous 3-8.
1999 - We are 3rd with FSU, GT, and Clemson in the top 25. Virginia and Wake are top 40. NCSt and Maryland are top 60.
2000 - Back down to 6th. Again FSU (3), GT (14), Clemson (15) are the only decent schools. NC St is the only other in the top 50.
2001 - 4th. FSU (9), Maryland (10), UNC (23), us (26) are decent. Cimpson (41), NC ST (43) round out the top 50.
2002 - 4th. FSU (11), Maryland (13), NC St (14), uva (29) top 30. Us, Wake, Clem in the top 50.
