Does the ACC deserve an auto BCS bid?

The ACC got off to an inauspicious start on Thursday night when NC State lost at home to South Carolina and kept the underachieving going through Saturday night.

One can hardly lay the blame at the feet of Virginia Tech, who led #5 Alabama into the start of the fourth quarter. There are several reasons VT couldn't pull it off, which I will get into in detail in another post. The real embarrassment came at the hands of some of the lower tier ACC leagues that couldn't beat much lesser competition.

Let's check our scorecard below:

South Carolina defeats NC State
Baylor defeats Wake Forest
William and Mary defeats Virginia
Richmond defeats Duke
California defeats Maryland
Alabama defeats Virginia Tech

Boston College defeats Northeastern
Clemson defeats Middle Tennessee State
North Carolina defeats The Citadel
Georgia Tech defeats Jacksonville State

For anyone noticing a pattern, the four victories were against absolutely horrific competition, most of which isn't even FBS/Division IA. The ACC was a putrid 0-4 against the other BCS conferences, with the definite lowlights being Virginia and Duke being unable to unseat the other in state schools.

So, there is a reason why the ACC gets no respect. I mentioned this in a blog last week that there are two things keeping the ACC from being mentioned with the SECs and the Big 12s in terms of dominance - the lack of a national title contender and the inability to win ANY out of conference games. Both took it on the chin this weekend.

VT likely won't fall too far from the top 10 given how they competed and wouldn't give up through the game. A one loss ACC team doesn't have much of a hope, however.

Given how weak this league seems to be, I would be very surprised if VT did not win it. They are clearly the best team in the league, with all respect to FSU and Miami who don't play until tomorrow night.

So, does the ACC deserve an auto bid to the BCS? I bet that BYU, Utah, Boise State and TCU would all give you the same answer.

Absolutely not.