Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The ACC Atlantic: BC, Clemson, and Florida State

For all intents and purposes, the ACC Atlantic race is down to the Boston College Eagles and the Clemson Tigers, both at 3-2 in the conference.  The Tigers, of course, hold the tiebreaker over BC and will no doubt make this a tough road.  There is a third party lurking, however, and it is the Florida State Seminoles who play Clemson this weekend.  They don't have that great of a chance unless they beat Clemson and BC collapses, but I'll include them anyway.  I think we can eliminate Wake Forest (2-3, and losses to BC and Clemson), Maryland (1-3 and just plain awful), and NC State (another great season for the Hen).

These are the upcoming schedules:

Boston College (6-3, 3-2)

November 14 at Virginia
November 21 vs. North Carolina
November 28 at Maryland

Clemson (5-3, 3-2)

November 7 vs. Florida State
November 14 at North Carolina State
November 21 vs. Virginia
November 28 out-of-conference game

Florida State (4-4, 2-3)

November 7 at Clemson
November 14 at Wake Forest
November 21 vs. Maryland
November 28 out-of-conference game

The team with the easiest road of these three is probably Boston College, since two of those teams in the hunt play one another and BC plays nobody that is contending.  Virginia and Maryland are very much beatable teams, though North Carolina has shown some fight as of late.  NC State couldn't stop a high school offense at this point and Wake Forest could be tricky at home (as we saw how they nearly beat Miami).

We all know what the goal here is: BC has to win one more game than Clemson over the last three.  Despite BC's road woes, the potential does exist for the Eagles to go 3-0.  With that said, we must ask ourselves if we see 2-1 (or worse) on Clemson's schedule.  The answer is a qualified yes.  Their last two conference games look like wins, so it will all come down to that game against Florida State.  From a Boston College perspective, we are all fans of that shaky, inconsistent Seminole team this weekend.  It is by far the most likely candidate to be Clemson's 3rd ACC loss, and if it doesn't come to pass, then it will take a minor miracle for the Eagles to win the division.

3 comments:

  1. I wouldn't put it past TOB to beat Clemson at home. He's usually good for one WTF win as well as the WTF loss.

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  2. It's not impossible, but I could throw for 300 yards off their D. Could be close.

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  3. BC can still win a three-way tie with Clemson and FSU provided it beats Maryland. So, BC doesn't necessarily need one more win than Clemson down the stretch.

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