Unlike the hallowed 1960′s, integration was actually firmly in place and you saw some of the greatest teams and individuals in history: the Walton Gang, Secretariat, Affirmed, Alydar, Roberto Duran, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Joe Frazier, the A’s and Reds of the early and mid-70′s, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe and Bjorn Borg, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson, and the great Cowboy, Dolphin, Raider and Steeler teams of the entire decade.

I think there were far more memorable teams and events in the 70′s than there generally are now. You actually knew who the players were from year to year.

Some of that had to do with the reserve clause still being a factor until the late 70′s, and fewer guys going pro early, but integration also had a lot to do with it. There may also be sports overload now with the internet and ESPN and so many events, but I find it hard to say sports is better now.

as for unc, i love that we have a dominant defense and an improving young offense. enjoy watching both sides of the ball. i love that we have a chance to be 6-0 into the bye week. i love that we’re discussing the possibility of unc going 13-0. however, that won’t happen. i’d be ecstatic with a 11-2 season and i’d start getting disappointed with a 8-5 season.

against gt, unc is a 2 to 2.5 pt underdog. excluding a ~3 pt home field advantage, vegas is saying unc is a slight favorite. given our recent history of away games and given that unc hasn’t beaten gt at atlanta since ’97, i’d think we deserve more than a ~3 pt discount. we’re a 18th~22nd ranked team, while gt is not far back as a 26th~27th ranked team. taking all that into consideration, i’d take the spread vegas is giving us. i really do think that we’ll handily beat gt (24-13). but you never know with paul johnson.

in terms of the acc, we have miami, vt, fsu and unc in the top 25 with gt and clemson close by. that compares favorably to other conferences excl. sec and big 12. big east just has cincy. big ten has penn st, osu and mich. pac 10 has cal, usc and wash. i think acc has a strong case to be the third best conf. anyone can point to uva, maryland or dook but all conferences have useless teams like that.

January 1 used to be the greatest sporting day of the year in the United States. Now, it is boring and futile. Remember Mack Brown leaping around because Texas beat Michigan on a late field goal a couple of years ago? I remember thinking, “how stupid is this?” There is only one game that has any purported meaning now, but 20 years ago, a big resounding win on New Year’s day could catapult a team to a title. Either give us a play-off or go back to the old system.

I think by the time we play VT, Miami or FSU the nature of the schedule means someone is going to lose and the rankings will fall for one of these teams compared to playing them now. If we get to these teams and win each game what are the chances they will have lost, I’m not going to research the next five weeks of ACC football but it’s clear that Miami or VT will have a loss this weekend. The issue with the rankings is that at the end of the season teams that don’t lose, don’t move down – only up or hold their position. That’s a challenge if you are undefeated and teams above you have quit losing…aka the one loss scenario that william puts forth. Remember FSU beating FL then losing to them in the National title game, oh and yes TOB fans, the FSU FL game was the last game of the regular season. I would end to think a BCS team that has no losses would be ranked number one but if it happens to get tight at the end of the year and the top 3 teams in the poll lost their game early in the season that zero loss BCS team gets the shaft.

I am glad to see the football posts, it’s a great game and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be good at football. First forward pass baby…come on. I’m in the same camp as Heels Perspective though, cautiously optimistic though I think 2009 is the real deal, maybe a year early to be true but excited nonetheless. I don’t care what happens with State, I hope they win a lot games so our victory over them is worth something better than the Pappa Johns Bowl in Mobile Alabama…

One last comment – “It is a good thing the ACC is so good in basketball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that UNC is good at all of these sports, if you have four or five teams in the conference that have the will and the fanbase to put a good team on the field I think you will get to add football to this statement as well william. FSU, Miami, VT and a legacy ACC school – UNC, Clemson, Georgia Tech…

Go Heels!

As a Tar Heel football fan, I will continue to focus week to week without getting my hopes up too high. THF is correct in that our offense is shaky and will be inconsistent due to the line issues and even though talented, FR wide recievers will have their problems.

Here’s to watching Pitt stomp on state Saturday while enjoying the aftermath of a big Tar Heel win in Atlanta.

Like I said, if they are undefeated they will be #1 in all the polls. The question would be how much the computers would favor them versus those other teams. I do not think there will be enough of a difference there to push them all the way down to #3. They might fall behind one team but doubtful they would fall behind two. An ACC team in that position will not have the same issues Utah, Boise St or a Conf USA team would have. The computers will rank them high enough and the human element i.e. the polls actually accounts for a bigger piece of the formula.

Also, the ACC may end up looking better by the end of the season than they look right now. That is what happened last year. By the end of the year, the computers said the ACC was the #3 football conference overall behind the SEC and Big 12.

It is a good thing the ACC is so good in basketball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer.

The system is not perfect but I think it is better than it once was. I am actually all for a playoff.

And it will be moot because UNC’s offense is not good enough to run the table.

I call college football an imaginary sport, because, unlike baseball and basketball, certain schools have no definite chance to win the ultimate title regardless of what their on-field results are. We have seen it with several teams from out West. In college basketball, an undefeated team needs no “help” to win the championship.

Almost as bad, is the fact that certain other teams can end up slated to be national champs almost regardless of how poorly they end up the season. Was I the only one who saw LSU’s title a couple of seasons ago as being an utter and complete joke?

I am not even positive that UNC makes the title game if they are the only undefeated team in the country. Beating Miami and FSU and Clemson, might be less impressive than Florida, USC, Texas, etc., losing only one. It may be a moot point with all the injuries….