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Atlantic Coast Conference

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The Atlantic Coast Conference was founded in 1953. For many years, the ACC has been considered primarily basketball conference. Schools like Duke and North Carolina are two of the most prominent college basketball programs in the country. The original members of the ACC included Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wake Forest and North Carolina State . Virginia joined the conference shortly after it was established. South Carolina left the conference in 1971. Georgia Tech joined the conference in 1978. The conference received a big boost in terms of football when Florida State joined the ACC in 1991. Florida State dominated the conference during the 90’s, including two national championships in 1993 and 1999.

In an effort to improve the conference’s stature as a football power conference, the ACC added Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East in 2004. Boston College joined the ACC in 2005. Now that the conference had 12 teams, it was divided into to two divisions and a conference championship game was established. The champion of the ACC is awarded a berth in the Orange Bowl.

The Atlantic Division consists of Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, NC State and Wake Forest.

The Coastal Division consists of Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia, North Carolina and Duke.

Other bowl games tied in to the ACC are the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Gator Bowl, Champs Sports Bowl, Music City Bowl, Meineke Car Care Bowl, Emerald Bowl and Humanitarian Bowl.

In its first year of existence, the ACC produced a national champion. The Associated Press and Coaches Poll voted Maryland as the 1953 national champion. Clemson won the national title in 1981. Georgia Tech won a share of the national title in 1990. Florida State is the only program to win a BCS championship as a member of the ACC. Miami won the BCS title in 2001 when they were still a member of the Big East.

The ACC has many heated rivalries. The most notable from a college football perspective is the Florida State-Miami rivalry. Games between these two schools always seemingly came down to a field goal attempt.

The matchup between Florida State and Clemson is known as the Bowden Bowl. Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden is the son of legendary Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden. It was the first time in college football history that a father and son coached against each other. Bobby Bowden leads the overall series 5-4 over his son.

The Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry is pure hatred. Virginia has enjoyed dominance in the rivalry in nearly every sport except football. The winner of the game is awarded the Commonwealth Cup trophy. Virginia Tech leads the all-time series 47-37-5.

The North Carolina-Duke rivalry is most noted for its basketball teams. Even so, make no mistake, these schools absolutely despise each other. The football teams battle for the Victory Bell. North Carolina leads the all-time series 54-36-4, including 17 of the last 18 meetings.

The ACC Championship Game will be held in Jacksonville, Florida between Virginia Tech and Boston College. Florida State won the inaugural game in 2005. Upstart Wake Forest won last year’s game.