UNC and Virginia Tech already provided the ACC a major impact game for the conference on Thursday night. Not to mention a great game to watch. According to Heather Dinich at ESPN.com, UNC's win was bad for the ACC. Seriously. Basically Virginia Tech's third loss eliminates them from the BCS top fifteen. That along with Miami losing a 2nd game with one of those against the now devalued Hokies means there will likely not be a 2nd ACC team in a BCS Bowl game. Never mind it was a huge win for UNC and the Heels may have turned their season around with the win, instead lets discuss how the ACC is screwed in the BCS standings. Yes, it was that stupid.
Anyway, three conference games on the agenda.
NC State takes their regularly deprecated defense to the three ring circus in Tallahassee. It has gotten so bad at FSU that Bobby Bowden was booed during a homecoming pep rally on Friday. Of course when you are interviewed by the visiting team's local radio station and wish the swine flu on the starting QB, perhaps a little booing is in order. This game promises to see at least 80 points combined scored. Both defenses suck while both offenses are extremely proficient at scoring points. FSU is a little better though however there seems to be some 0-3 threshold no one in the conference can slip past.
In the race for the Coastal Division, Miami actually benefited somewhat from the UNC win since it drops VT back a game. The Hurricanes need GT to lose again creating a three way tie which is a longshot but closer than they were prior to Thursday night. The Canes travel to Wake Forest in what should be a thorough exorcism of last week's demons(and this week's too) Wake has been decent at times but probably will not be able to stop Miami's offense with any regularity.
Duke vs UVa is the more intriguing matchup of the day just for the possibility that Duke could move to 5-3 and 3-1 in the ACC setting up an epic sort of battle of the blues next week in Chapel Hill. At some point Duke is expected to show signs of their old selves or they could be riding a wave of outstanding play that will carry them through the rest of the season. A road game at Charlottesville is just as a good a test as any.
Georgia Tech, Clemson and Boston College should take care of business with their out of conference games though keep an eye on the BC-Central Michigan game. Beating a 7-1 is not an easy task, even if they are from the MAC.
FSU 48 NCSU 38
Clemson 40 Coastal Carolina 10
BC 21 CMU 20
Miami 35 Wake 17
UVa 28 Duke 21
Georgia Tech 45 Vandy 10