The ACC had high hopes that expansion would turn the league into a football superpower admired across the land.

It hasn’t happened. If anything, the league’s reputation has been slipping.

The ACC is not considered one of the nation’s top football leagues a la the Southeastern Conference or Big 12. It has never landed two teams in the Bowl Championship Series in the same year, unlike the aforementioned leagues or the Pacific 10 or Big Ten.

The ACC is in a “down cycle,” said ABC analyst Bob Griese. He considers the SEC the nation’s best league.

“The SEC, … it just seems like with the amount of players and recruits that they get, and the teams [it has], and the coaching jobs all these guys are doing, they’re the dominant [league],” Griese said.

The ACC was ranked sixth among the 11 Division I-A conferences in The Sporting News’ preview magazine, the lowest ranking among the BCS leagues. Lindy’s ranked the ACC fifth in its preview magazine.

There are only three ACC teams in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll, compared to six SEC teams, five Big 12 teams and four Big Ten teams. The five other BCS leagues each have at least one team ranked ahead of the ACC’s top-ranked member, No. 9 Clemson.

That wasn’t what the ACC expected when Virginia Tech and five-time national champ Miami came aboard in 2004, followed by fellow Big East import Boston College a year later.

“I think we’re the best [league],” Hokies coach Frank Beamer said in the summer of 2004.

“I think we’re looked upon as being on equal footing [with the SEC],” ACC commissioner John Swofford said in the summer of 2005.

No one is saying that anymore.

Expansion has certainly fattened ACC members’ wallets. But the ACC has lost eight straight BCS bowls since Florida State beat then-Big East member Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl in January 2000, which greatly tarnishes the league’s reputation. The Hokies were responsible for the latest loss, falling to Kansas in the Orange Bowl last January.

“You’ve got to start winning those BCS games,” ABC and ESPN commentator Doug Flutie said. “The SEC has been stronger. … Would a team from the ACC or Big Ten with two losses be put in the national title game [like LSU last season]? I don’t think so.”

“We have not done well in the BCS and …that shows … whether or not your conference is good, is winning on the highest stage,” Georgia Tech offensive tackle Andrew Gardner said.

The ACC hasn’t produced a national champion since that FSU win over the Hokies. The league hasn’t even had a team in the BCS title game since FSU lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl in January 2001.

“You’ve got to have a national champion come out of your conference, which they used to [have],” said Rick “Doc” Walker, the analyst for the ACC’s syndicated game of the week. “Without the flash team — no LSU, no USC, no Florida State in the old days or Miami in the old days, you’re not going to get the [media] behind you.”

The biggest reason for the ACC’s decline?

“We’ve been down,” Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said of his Seminoles. “Miami’s been down.”

FSU and Miami have won a combined seven national titles. The Seminoles finished among the top five in the final AP poll for 14 straight years, ending with the 2000 season. But FSU has lost at least four games in five of the past seven seasons, and is coming off its second straight 7-6 campaign.
Miami went unbeaten in 2001, capping the season with its fifth national crown. The Hurricanes, though, went 7-6 in 2006 and 5-7 last fall.

“Miami [was] not going to stay up there and do what they were doing,” Griese said. “Florida State finishing in the top [five] … that just doesn’t go on and on. You have to have some down years.

“I’m not surprised the [ACC] thing has hit a down cycle, and I won’t be surprised when it comes back.”

At the end of the 2005 season, the ACC’s first year with 12 teams, the league went 5-3 in bowl games. But last season, the ACC went just 2-6 in bowls — its fewest wins since going 1-4 in the bowls that followed the 2000 season.

Last season’s losses included the Hokies’ defeat in the Orange Bowl; Clemson’s overtime loss to Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta; and Virginia’s loss to Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl.

“If we come out this year and win the Gator Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the … Chick-fil-A Bowl, people are going to be like, 'Wow, the ACC is back big-time,’” Gardner said. “That’ll do a lot to change the perception nationally.”

The ACC was just 11-15 against the other BCS conferences last year, including both regular-season and bowl games. That included a 3-6 mark against the SEC and a 2-4 mark against the Big 12. That does not include losses to the likes of Wyoming, Central Florida and East Carolina.

The regular season featured LSU’s 48-7 thrashing of the Hokies, Oklahoma’s 51-13 rout of Miami, and West Virginia’s 31-14 win over Maryland.

And then there was Florida’s 45-12 undressing of FSU, and Georgia’s 31-17 victory over Georgia Tech. The two SEC teams have owned those series in recent years.

“The SEC and the ACC, we’re kind of like rivals,” Georgia Tech defensive tackle Vance Walker said. “We need to beat them. That’s the bottom line.

“It all goes back to just winning nonconference games against them; bowl games, too. We can win the national championship, but if we lose to somebody from the SEC, that just makes it even worse, to let the nation know the SEC’s better than the ACC.”

The ACC will have plenty of chances to test itself against the SEC this year. Clemson opens against Alabama at the Georgia Dome. Clemson and North Carolina State both face South Carolina. Florida State and Miami will both take on Florida. Wake Forest will meet Mississippi and Vanderbilt. Georgia Tech will face Mississippi State and Georgia.

“If all this [Clemson] hype is for real, we’ll go out there [against Alabama] and play good and we’ll get out of there with a win,” Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper said. “ACC vs. SEC, ACC’s got to step up and start winning these games. … We’ve got to show up ...”

At least there is one area where the ACC has bragging rights — the NFL Draft. The ACC has had 115 players picked in the last three drafts combined, more than any other league. The SEC is second with 112.

If only all those picks translated into a greater number of prestigious wins.

“Look at the NFL Draft,” Hokies quarterback Sean Glennon said. “I don’t think it’s a lack of talent [in the ACC, but] I will say the SEC seems to be the strongest conference.”