ACC still bragging

Several coaches around the Atlantic Coast Conference used the conference’s football media day to brag on themselves a little bit, particularly given Clemson’s national championship victory over Alabama.

So much so that Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher called the ACC the best conference in college football.

“Fortunately, [Alabama Coach] Nick Saban gets a shot to silence Fisher and Florida State in the season opener, but we have also found a way to solve the endless, conference debate,” Joe Cox of SaturdayDownSouth.com wrote. “Given the success of conference showdowns in basketball, it’s only a matter of time until it makes the way to football. And when it does, what could be a better matchup than the SEC and the ACC?”

Four SEC-ACC rivalries already exist (Florida vs. Florida State, Kentucky vs. Louisville, South Carolina vs. Clemson and Georgia vs. Georgia Tech), so Cox matched up the remaining 10 teams from each league to have a full-blown SEC/ACC Challenge.

Here are a couple of the games he suggested:

Arkansas vs. Pittsburgh: “Both are relatively new to their respective conference, don’t fit the geographic footptint especially well, and have proud traditions of football that they are trying to reestablish,” Cox wrote. “As a bonus, in 2017, this would be an absolute shootout. First one to 50 wins, and the losing fans would get some nice barbecue or Primanti Bros. sandwiches.”

Arkansas women’s basketball and baseball radio announcer Phil Elson, a Pittsburgh native, might second that nomination.

Alabama vs. Miami: “Sure, we’d love to see the Tide play Florida State or maybe Clemson, but they are accounted for. That said, Saban vs. [Miami Coach Mark] Richt is a good matchup,” Cox wrote.

The rest of Cox’s list: Auburn vs. Virginia Tech Texas A&M vs. Syracuse Ole Miss vs. Virginia

LSU vs. N.C. State Tennessee vs. North Carolina Missouri vs. Boston College Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest

Vanderbilt vs. Duke