Florida State Clinches Spot In BCS Title Game

With a dominant showing in the ACC Championship Game, Florida State clinches a spot in the BCS title game and finishes an undefeated 2013 season.

Florida State took care of Duke easily and will remain the No. 1 team when the final BCS standings of the year come out Sunday night. The Seminoles will await an opponent — either Ohio State or Auburn will be on the opposite sideline when the title game kicks off from Pasadena on Jan. 6.

Led by Heisman favorite Jameis Winston, the Seminoles will be headed to their eighth BCS bowl, and second straight after topping Northern Illinois in last year’s Orange Bowl.

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2013 AQ Conference Profiles: Atlantic Coast Conference

 

BCS Know How will take you through the six automatic-qualifying BCS conferences in preparation for the 2013 season. Short and sweet previews keep going with the expanded ACC. Scroll down to see our profiles of the other conferences.

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

Active Since: 1953

Current Member Schools:

Atlantic Conference: Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Florida State Seminoles, Maryland Terrapins, NC State Wolfpack, Syracuse Orange, Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Coastal Conference: Duke Blue Devils, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Miami Hurricanes, North Carolina Tar Heels, Pittsburgh Panthers, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies (14)

2013 Bowl Affiliations and Tie-Ins: Orange Bowl (BCS), Military Bowl, Belk Bowl, Russell Athletic Bowl, Music City Bowl, AdvoCare V100 Bowl, Sun Bowl, Chick-fil-A Bowl (8)

2012 Results:
Conference Champion — Florida State Seminoles (12-2, 7-1)
Conference Runner-up — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (7-7, 5-3)
BCS Bowl Results: 2013 Orange Bowl: Florida State 31 vs. Northern Illinois 10
Overall Bowl Record: 4-2

2013 Heisman Hopefuls: Miami RB Duke Johnson, Miami QB Stephen Morris, Clemson QB Tajh Boyd, Clemson WR Sammy Watkins

BCS Know How’s 2013 Predictions:
Conference Champion — Clemson Tigers
Conference Runner-up — Florida State Seminoles
BCS Bids — Clemson — Orange Bowl
Heisman Finalists: None

Florida State Claims ACC Title To Return To Orange Bowl

Florida State is back in a BCS bowl.

For the first time since the 2006 Orange Bowl, the Seminoles will return to the group of five bowls that make up the BCS after an absence that knocked them from the ranks of the traditional BCS combatants.

The Seminoles’ 21-15 victory over Georgia Tech in Saturday’s ACC Championship Game will send Florida State back to the BCS as the recipient of the ACC’s automatic BCS bowl bid. And because the Seminoles are not vying for the BCS national title, they will represent the conference in the Orange Bowl this year.

The Seminoles can anticipate an at-large opponent or the Big East’s BCS representative, Louisville, to meet them in the New Year’s Day night game.

Florida State went to a BCS bowl in six of the first eight years of the BCS era, but after Virginia Tech took over the Seminoles’ mantle as the perennial BCS combatant from the ACC, Florida State had a long break from the Bowl Championship Series.

2012 BCS AQ Conference Profile: Atlantic Coast Conference

BCS Know How will take you through the six automatic-qualifying BCS conferences in preparation for the 2012 season. Short and sweet previews begin with the ACC. Scroll down to see our profiles of the other conferences.

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

Active Since: 1953

Current Member Schools:

Atlantic Division: Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Florida State Seminoles, Maryland Terrapins, North Carolina State Wolfpack, Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Coastal Division: Duke Blue Devils, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes, North Carolina Tar Heels, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies (12)

Bowl Affiliations: Orange Bowl (BCS), Military Bowl, Belk Bowl, Independence Bowl, Russell Athletic Bowl, Music City Bowl, Sun Bowl, Chick-fil-A Bowl (8)

2011 Results:
Conference Champion — Clemson Tigers (10-4, 6-2, Coastal Division Champion)
Conference Runner-up — Virginia Tech Hokies (11-3, 7-1, Atlantic Division Champion)
BCS Bowl Results: 2012 Orange Bowl: West Virginia 70 vs. Clemson 33; 2012 Sugar Bowl: Michigan 23 vs. Virginia Tech 20
Overall Bowl Record: 2-6

2012 Outlook: Up, down and up again, Clemson spent the early part of the 2011 season as a top-10 team. Stumbles mid-season broke any chance of a national title shot for the Tigers, but a Clemson ACC championship game victory over Virginia Tech brought the ACC two BCS bids for the first time in conference history.

With an unparalleled season in that respect in the review mirror, can the ACC again deliver top-flight talent on a national stage? The pieces seem in place, as Florida State — BCS bowl-less since 2006 — is a preseason top-10 team and the consistent Hokies figure to play a role in the national discussion somewhere down the line.

A conference that hasn’t participated in the BCS title game since 2003 may have a shot with the Seminoles in 2012. but a so0n-to-be-outdated BCS title shot or not, the ACC is certainly a force to reckon with.

Heisman Hopefuls: Clemson QB Tajh Boyd, Clemson WR Sammy Watkins, Virginia Tech QB Logan Thomas; North Carolina RB Giovani Bernard; Florida State QB E.J. Manuel

BCS Know How’s 2012 Predictions:
Conference Champion — Florida State Seminoles
Conference Runner-up — Virginia Tech Hokies
BCS Bids — Florida State — Orange Bowl
Heisman Finalists: None

State of the BCS Survey: Long Under-Served ACC Fans Most Unhappy With BCS

Scroll down for full results!

One of the best things about the BCS Know How State of the BCS survey is that is gave us an insight into statistics and opinions that haven’t really been explored before.

Most notably, we wanted to see how badly the BCS was hated, who wanted a playoff and who thought they were getting the short end of the stick.

With the more than 3,100 results all tabulated and reviewed, it’s pretty obvious. Atlantic Coast Conference fans feel a little peeved about the BCS.

By splitting our sample into fans who self-identified as being from the states where each of the six AQ conferences have teams, we could easily see who among the six groups want change the most.

And it was pretty clear — ACC fans have real beef with the BCS.

In our original survey, 73 percent of respondents said they wanted a playoff. But in ACC country, more than 81 percent called for the overhaul many have wanted for seasons and a system ACC fans think their teams might have benefitted from.

ACC country also accounted for the largest portion of respondents who said they were at least “somewhat unhappy” with the current system of crowning a national champion — 90 percent were at least a little peeved at the system that hasn’t given the ACC a champ in quite some time.

Not surprisingly, fans from states with SEC teams were a little warmer to the ideas behind the current BCS after having produced each of the last six BCS national champions. Yet, given the fact that the SEC seems well suited for the BCS system, the response was not much warmer than average.

Of the six major AQ conferences, SEC fans only wanted a playoff 66 percent of the time, well less than the 73 percent among all respondents. SEC country also had the highest density of “plus-one” supporters, with 29 percent supporting that system against just 20 percent support overall.

SEC fans claimed the BCS formula was a fair process for evaluating teams 36 percent of the time, well clear of the overall feeling toward the formula, which got a cold 29 percent approval rating.

There certainly is some overlap between “fan groups,” and the process of saying fans from states with teams are automatically fans of those teams. But the mentality of the fans can spread among neighbors and friends, so it’s as good a look as we can get right now.

[Teams were assigned the conference they will be a part of on opening day this season.]

For fun, we also included a group lovingly called the “Little Sisters” subgroup, fans from Idaho, Utah and Hawaii — three states that have given us recent memorable “BCS Busters” in Boise State Broncos, Utah Utes and the Hawaii Warriors. We excluded Texas (TCU) for obvious reasons.

Among this group, and even though realignment will soon have given both Utah and Boise State a chance to play with the AQ conferences, the hatred was even more deep-seeded than in ACC territory.

A whopping 99 percent of respondents from the three states were at least “somewhat unhappy” with the BCS, while 94 percent called for a playoff to be put in place. Fans from the three states gave the BCS a paltry 11 percent approval rating.

Here’s a collection of the entirety of the geographical findings (overall results in BOLD).

Take a look and leave your comment below:

Your view of the current postseason system in the Football Bowl Subdivision:

Conference	Needs Altering	Should remain the same
“Little Sisters”	96 percent	4 percent
ACC	94 percent	6 percent
Pac-12	94 percent	6 percent
Overall	93 percent	7 percent
Big East	92 percent	8 percent
Big 12	92 percent	8 percent
ACC	92 percent	8 percent
Big Ten	91 percent	9 percent

—

How would you change the system?

Conference	Playoffs!	Plus-one
“Little Sisters”	94 percent	5 percent
ACC	81 percent	13 percent
Big East	76 percent	18 percent
Pac-12	76 percent	17 percent
Overall	73 percent	20 percent
Big 12	70 percent	28 percent
Big Ten	69 percent	25 percent
SEC	66 percent	29 percent

—

How pleased are you with the way a champion is crowned in FBS college football?

Conference	At least “somewhat unhappy”
“Little Sisters”	99 percent
ACC	90 percent
Big 12	89 percent
Pac-12	89 percent
Big East	87 percent
Big 10	87 percent
Overall	86 percent
SEC	81 percent

—

Is the current evaluation method used by the BCS (human polls, computers) to judge teams fair?

Conference	Yes	No
SEC	36 percent	64 percent
Big East	34 percent	66 percent
Big Ten	32 percent	68 percent
Big 12	31 percent	69 percent
ACC	29 percent	71 percent
Overall	29 percent	71 percent
Pac-12	24 percent	76 percent
“Little Sisters”	11 percent	89 percent

Clemson On Its Way to The Orange Bowl Following ACC Title Game Victory

An underdog coming into the ACC Championship Game, the Clemson Tigers stunned Virginia Tech, topping the Hokies 38-10 to secure the ACC’s automatic bid to the BCS and the conference crown.

With the victory, Clemson is assured of a spot in the Orange Bowl, as the bowl holds a contract with the ACC to host the conference’s champion if they are not headed to the BCS national title game.

Clemson is likely to be faced with the Big East’s conference champion, projected to be West Virginia, in the Miami-based BCS bowl that has seen plenty of exciting matchups throughout its storied history.

Clemson is led by quarterback Tahj Boyd, who helped bring the Tigers back into national prominence, and for a time, had the Tigers angling for a shot at a BCS title game berth. Faltering midway through the season prevented the Tigers from continuing to be contenders in that conversation, but a victory in Saturday’s ACC championship game certainly helped to emphasize the program’s revitalization.

2011 BCS AQ Conference Profiles: Atlantic Coast Conference

Welcome to the 2011 college football season! BCS Know How will be taking you through the six automatic-qualifying BCS conferences and five non-AQ conferences with profiles of each conference. We begin with the ACC. Scroll down to see our profiles of the other 10 conferences.

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

Active Since: 1953

Current Member Schools:

Atlantic Division: Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Florida State Seminoles, Maryland Terrapins, North Carolina State Wolfpack, Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Coastal Division: Duke Blue Devils, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Miami (Fl.) Hurricanes, North Carolina Tar Heels, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies. (12)

Bowl Affiliations: Orange Bowl (BCS), Independence Bowl, Belk Bowl, Military Bowl, Champs Sports Bowl, Music City Bowl, Sun Bowl, Chick-fil-A Bowl (8)

2010 Results:
Conference Champion – Virginia Tech Hokies (11-3, 8-0, Coastal Division Champion)
Conference Runner-up – Florida State Seminoles (10-4, 6-2, Atlantic Division Champion)
BCS Bowl Result: 2011 Orange Bowl: Stanford 40 vs. Virginia Tech 12
Overall Bowl Record: 4-5

2011 Outlook: A consistently strong conference, the ACC delivers each year with talent from top to bottom.

2011 seems to be no different, as resurgent Miami, NC State, North Carolina and Boston College join the ranks of recent powers Virginia Tech, Florida State and Georgia Tech as legitimate contender’s for the conference’s BCS bid.

Can Virginia Tech make it two conference championships in a row, or will Florida State take that next step? Or could it be any of the handful of other teams seemingly on their way up?

Heisman Hopefuls: Virginia Tech RB David Wilson, Maryland QB Danny O’Brien, Florida State QB E.J. Manuel

BCS Know How’s 2011 Predictions:
Conference Champion – Florida State Seminoles
Conference Runner-up – Virginia Tech Hokies
BCS Bids – Florida State – Orange Bowl
Heisman Finalists: None

Virginia Tech On Their Way to the Orange Bowl

Virginia Tech used a masterful performance from quarterback Tyrod Taylor and a well-rounded attack to take down Florida State in the ACC Championship Game and claim an ACC title and Orange Bowl bid.

By winning the ACC Championship Game but not making their way to the national title game, the Hokies will fulfill the ACC’s contractual agreement with the ACC and act as the host of the Orange Bowl, which will be held January 3 in Miami, Fl.

The Hokies had an inauspicious start to their 2010 season, losing two straight to Oregon State and FCS James Madison, however since that embarrassing loss to a FCS team, the Hokies have reeled off 11 straight victories.

The Hokies’ opponent is yet to be decided in the Orange Bowl, but will likely either be the Big East champions or the Stanford Cardinal.

This will be Virginia Tech’s fifth appearance in a BCS bowl and third Orange Bowl appearance in four years.

BCS Conference Title Race Scenarios Updated 12/4

With the season entering its final two weeks, conference races in all six conferences are coming down to the wire.

And although some are clear cut and easy to understand, others are a little bit more messy and may even require some tiebreakers.

Each of the six BCS conferences are listed here, with the teams still vying for a spot, and how each team will need the next two weekends to play out in order to either make their conference title game or win their conference crown.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

Coastal Division

Virginia Tech has clinched the Coastal Division and will play in the ACC Championship Game.

Atlantic Division

Florida State has clinched the Atlantic Division and will play in the ACC Championship Game.

Big 12

North Division

Nebraska has clinched the North Division and will play in the Big 12 Championship Game.

South Division

Oklahoma has clinched the South Division by the nature of the three-way tiebreaking BCS standings, and will play in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Big East

Connecticut (4-2) will win the conference if they beat South Florida.

West Virginia (5-2) IF Connecticut loses to South Florida.

Big Ten

Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State all finish 7-1 in conference, and the Big Ten’s automatic BCS bid will go to the team ranked highest in the final BCS standings.

Pac-10 Conference

Oregon has clinched the Pac-10 conference championship and will receive a BCS bowl bid.

Southeastern Conference (SEC)

East Division

South Carolina has clinched the East Division and will play in the SEC Championship Game.

West Division

Auburn has clinched the West Division and will play in the SEC Championship Game.

ACC, Pac-10 and SEC Rundown Week 12

Atlantic Coast Conference

Conference Leaders: Florida State (8-3, 6-2; Atlantic Division) and Virginia Tech (9-2, 7-0; Clinched Coastal Division)

Lurking: North Carolina State (8-3, 5-2; Atlantic Division)

Game of Last Week: North Carolina State 29 vs. North Carolina 25. Down nine points late, NC State used a couple of exciting plays to stay alive in the Atlantic Division race until its final weekend.

Game of Next Week: NC State vs. Maryland. A victory for the Wolfpack would give them the Atlantic Division crown, while a Maryland victory would hand the title to Florida State.

Bowl Eligible Teams: Florida State Seminoles, Virginia Tech Hokies, Maryland Terrapins, North Carolina State Wolfpack, North Carolina Tar Heels, Miami Hurricanes, Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Pac-10

Conference Leader: Oregon (10-0, 7-0)

Lurking: Stanford (10-1, 7-1)

Game of Last Week: Oregon State 36 vs. USC 7. USC continued its historic struggles in the state of Oregon, falling to Oregon State yet again, this time barely putting up a fight while Matt Barkley had to leave the game after injuring his ankle.

Game of Next Week: Oregon vs. Arizona. What will likely be Oregon’s final matchup against a ranked team until bowl season may be the final time Oregon could be in danger of falling victim to an upset.

Bowl Eligible Teams: Oregon Ducks, Arizona Wildcats, Stanford Cardinal.

SEC

Conference Leaders: South Carolina (8-3, 5-3; East Division) and Auburn (11-0, 7-0; West Division) have clinched their respective conference titles and will play in the SEC Championship Game on December 4th.

Game of Last Week: Arkansas 38 vs. Mississippi State 31. The Bulldogs and Razorbacks went back and forth on Saturday, neither team ever taking control until Arkansas finally was able to contain the Bulldog offense in the second overtime.

Game of Next Week: Auburn vs. Alabama. The Iron Bowl. Two top-12 teams. A chance for the No. 2 team in the country to fall victim to its instate rival looking for a season-defining win. What could be better?

Bowl Eligible Teams: LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Arkansas Razorbacks, South Carolina Gamecocks, Florida Gators, Kentucky Wildcats.