ACC bigger, but certainly not better

Everywhere you looked last weekend, the conference was absorbing abuse on the field and ridicule off. Some showcase for a conference on the bounce-back. High hopes, exposed as high hype.

Only Wake Forest, the third of the three ranked ACC teams, did what it was supposed to do, handling Baylor, 41-13, on the road Thursday. The readjusted ambitions now focus on Wake and Florida State, which avoided shame by not playing over the weekend. Of course, there's always Miami, which won its scrimmage against Charleston Southern. Remember when the ACC brain trust saw Florida State-Miami in an annual dream championship game matchup, grabbing eyeballs and printing money and making the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 title games look like intramurals?

You might not remember. It was a long time ago.

How this is all so much better than it used to be isn't clear. Once upon a time, ACC football was a fun way to occupy students before heading to the arena for Midnight Madness. Now that the ACC is a football-mad monster conference . . . uh, what day does basketball practice start?

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