FSU Football and the ACC

By Jim Joanos

As I write this article in mid-November, the Florida State University football team has clinched a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game to be played in Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 7th. You will likely be reading it just before that game. The Seminoles’ opponent for the game has not yet been determined. It will most likely be one of the following three teams: Virginia Tech, Duke, or Miami.

The ACC was not FSU’s first athletic conference. As early as 1948 it belonged to one, the Dixie Conference, which relationship existed for three years from 1948 to 1951. The Dixie Conference was composed of nine mostly small colleges who held no intentions of competing with the major athletic programs of the country. In addition to FSU, the members of that conference were Stetson, Tampa, Mississippi College, Millsaps, Mercer, Howard, Lambuath and Oglethorpe. One of the membership requirements of that league was that no athletic scholarships could be given to the athletes. From 1976 to 1991, FSU was a member of the Metro Conference. Other members of that conference when FSU joined were Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Memphis State, Saint Louis and Tulane. Later, Georgia Tech would leave and Virginia Tech, Southern Mississippi, and South Carolina would join. However, the Metro was not considered to be one of the premier national conferences as it did not include competition in football, and was somewhat limited in other aspects.

FSU became a member of the ACC beginning on July 1, 1991, and entered conference football completion beginning with the 1992 season. It was the school’s first entry into a major athletic conference.

The ACC had been organized in 1953 and was originally composed of seven schools who had been members of the Southern Conference. The original members included Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest. Shortly after its organization, Virginia was added as an eighth member. South Carolina left the conference in 1971. In 1978, Georgia Tech joined the ACC. Consequently, when FSU entered the ACC, the membership was expanded to nine. Since then, the ACC has been further expanded and strengthened by the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Notre Dame is also a new entry and participates in most of its sports not including football (however, it will play four football games a year against ACC opponents). Next year, Maryland will leave the conference and Louisville will join it.

ACC Trophy

Competing for the ACC football championship has been an important goal for FSU since it joined the conference. When FSU joined, most expected that the university would do well in football as its football program was regarded among the nation’s elite one. Those expectations turned out to be reality. The football Seminoles won their first twenty-nice ACC conference games without a loss. FSU won three straight conference championships (1992, 1993, 1994) outright, shared one (1995, with Virginia) won two more outright (1996, 1997), shared another (1998, with Georgia Tech) won two more outright (1999, 2000), missed one (2001, Maryland won it), won two more outright (2002, 2003), missed another (2004, Virginia Tech won it) and won another (2005). Over the first fourteen seasons (1992-2005) in the ACC, the Seminoles won or shared the ACC title twelve times. After 2005, the Seminoles cooled off somewhat and did not win the conference championship again until last season (2012) although it continued to be among the top several teams in the conference most seasons. Consequently, going into this year’s championship game, the Seminoles have thirteen ACC football championship trophies, and hope to add a fourteenth.

Prior to the 2005 season, the ACC did not have a conference football championship game. The champion each year was selected based on the conference season record in that all conference teams played each other. However, due to expansion, beginning with the 2005 season, the conference was divided into two divisions with the leader in each at the end of the season playing each other. FSU won the first ACC championship game over Virginia Tech, 27-22, in 2005. Since then, FSU has participated in two more conference championship games, losing to Virginia Tech, 33-44, in 2010, and winning it last season, 21-15 over Georgia Tech. Therefore, FSU enters this important game this year as the defending conference champion.

Regardless of which of the competing teams wins out, it is hoped that the Seminoles will do well against them. Go Noles!