Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
ACC moves championship game to Orlando
The ACC is moving its 2016 football championship to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium.
The conference made the announcement Thursday about the Dec. 3 game.
Orlando emerged as a possible location after the ACC joined other sports leagues in pulling out of North Carolina amid backlash over controversial state House Bill 2.
The law requires transgender people to use restrooms at schools and government buildings corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. It also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from local and statewide antidiscrimination protections.
The ACC Championship Game had been scheduled for Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, where it had been held since 2010. The announcement came 15 days after the conference decided to pull 10 neutral-site championships from North Carolina. That decision came days after the NCAA said it would relocate its championship events from the state.
This will be the sixth time the league holds its title game in Florida, having played it in Jacksonville from 2005-07 and in Tampa in 2008 and ‘09.
Charlotte had been a convenient, successful host the past six years, drawing an average crowd of nearly 70,000. With four ACC teams in the Top 25 — No. 3 Louisville, No. 5 Clemson, No. 12 Florida State and No. 14 Miami — this year’s matchup figures to be worthy of its prime-time slot on either ESPN or ABC.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe, whose Blue Devils played in the 2013 championship game in Charlotte, called that city an “incredible location.”
“It’s sad for me that it’s moved out of a venue that we were fortunate enough to play in once so far, but no question that the state of Florida’s got a lot of ACC fans,” Cutcliffe said. “We’re an East Coast conference, so I think it still represents our conference well.”
“You can do everything right and still be wrong” when it comes to Jackson, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.
Louisville’s opponents understand what Venables means. The third-ranked Cardinals (4-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who face No. 5 Clemson (4-0, 1-0) on Saturday night, lead the Football Bowl Subdivision with 63.5 points a game. Jackson has accounted for 25 touchdowns, 12 of them running.
Jackson is the Heisman Trophy front-runner through the first third of the season.
“We know how much of a playmaker and how he is an elite talent,” Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware said. “But we are up for the task.”
That was a huge question coming into the season as the Tigers faced life without seven defensive starters from last year’s ACC champions, six who were chosen in last spring’s NFL draft. So far, so good. The Tigers have allowed just 218 yards a game, the country’s third best total.
Christian Wilkins and Clelin Ferrell have filled in at defensive end for NFL draft picks Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd, who finished 1-2 nationally in tackles for loss last year.
Freshman Dexter Lawrence, a January enrollee, moved into the starting lineup in week two and has plugged up the middle at nose tackle.
Boulware said Clemson’s defense has to keep Jackson in the pocket and not let him make plays on the move. “It’s very important for our (defensive) line to get pressure and win their matchups,” he said.
Jackson has been adept at seeing the defensive plan and figuring out a way to beat the opposition on the ground or in the air. He has thrown for 1,330 yards and 13 TDs this season and rushed for 526 yards. Jackson is the first FBS quarterback in 10 years to have two games in a season where he’s accounted for seven touchdowns.