Atlantic_Coast_Conference

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Atlantic Coast Conference

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953, the ACC's twelve member universities compete in twenty sports in the NCAA's Division I. Football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the higher of two levels of Division I college football. The geographic center of the ACC is in Moore County, North Carolina, halfway between Charlotte and Raleigh.

History

Charter members of the ACC were Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest. The seven ACC charter members had been aligned with the Southern Conference, but left primarily due to the league's ban on postseason play. After drafting a set of bylaws for the creation of a new league, they formally withdrew from the Southern Conference at the Spring Meeting on the morning of May 8, 1953. The bylaws were ratified and the ACC officially came into existence on June 14, 1953. On December 4, 1953, officials convened in Greensboro, North Carolina, and admitted Virginia into the conference.

In 1971, the ACC lost a member in the University of South Carolina, now a member of the Southeastern Conference. The ACC operated with seven members until the addition of former Southeastern Conference member Georgia Tech from the Metro Conference on April 3, 1978. The addition of Florida State, also from the Metro Conference, on July 1, 1991, brought the total to nine. The ACC added three members from the Big East during the 2003 cycle of conference realignment: Miami and Virginia Tech joined on July 1, 2004, and Boston College joined on July 1, 2005, as the league's twelfth member and first from New England. The expansion was not without controversy, as Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia (and, initially, Virginia Tech) filed lawsuits against the ACC and against Miami and Boston College for conspiring to weaken the Big East Conference.

Commissioners

Name	Term
James H. Weaver	1954-1970
Robert James	1971-1987
Eugene F. Corrigan	1987-1997
John Swofford	1997-present

Members

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Joined ACC	School Type	Undergraduate Enrollment	Varsity Sports	NCAA Championships
Boston College	Eagles	Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts	1863	2005	Private/Jesuit	9,019	31	3
Clemson University	Tigers	Clemson, South Carolina	1889	1953	Public	14,172	19	3
Duke University	Blue Devils	Durham, North Carolina	1838	1953	Private/Non-Sectarian	6,259	26	9
Florida State University	Seminoles	Tallahassee, Florida	1851	1991	Public	32,525	17	7
Georgia Tech	Yellow Jackets	Atlanta, Georgia	1885	1979	Public	12,360	17	1
University of Maryland	Terrapins	College Park, Maryland	1856	1953	Public	25,857	27	21
University of Miami	Hurricanes	Coral Gables, Florida	1925	2004	Private/Non-Sectarian	10,132	17	5
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Tar Heels	Chapel Hill, North Carolina	1789	1953	Public	17,628	28	33
North Carolina State University	Wolfpack	Raleigh, North Carolina	1887	1953	Public	23,730	25	2
University of Virginia	Cavaliers	Charlottesville, Virginia	1819	1953	Public	13,726	25	14
Virginia Tech	Hokies	Blacksburg, Virginia	1872	2004	Public	23,041	21	0
Wake Forest University	Demon Deacons	Winston-Salem, North Carolina	1834	1953	Private/Non-Sectarian	4,231	18	8

In Division I FBS, football is the only sport for which the NCAA does not sponsor a championship. Championships sponsored by various third parties, such as the Bowl Championship Series and Associated Press are not included in the table.

Facilities

School	Baseball Stadium	Capacity	Basketball Arena	Capacity	Football Stadium	Capacity	Soccer/Lacrosse Stadium	Capacity
Boston College	Shea Field	1,000	Conte Forum	8,606	Alumni Stadium	44,500	Newton Campus Soccer Field	1,000
Clemson	Doug Kingsmore Stadium	6,500	Littlejohn Coliseum	10,000	Memorial Stadium	80,301	Riggs Field	8,332
Duke	Jack Coombs Field	2,000	Cameron Indoor Stadium	9,314	Wallace Wade Stadium	33,941	Koskinen Stadium	7,000
Florida State	Dick Howser Stadium	6,700	Donald L. Tucker Center	12,200	Doak Campbell Stadium	84,300	Seminole Soccer Complex	1,600
Georgia Tech	Russ Chandler Stadium	4,157	Alexander Memorial Coliseum	9,191	Bobby Dodd Stadium	55,000	None	-
Maryland	Shipley Field	2,500	Comcast Center	17,950	Byrd Stadium	51,500	Ludwig Field	6,500
Miami	Mark Light Field	5,000	BankUnited Center	7,900	Dolphin Stadium	76,500	Cobb Stadium	500
North Carolina	USA Baseball National Training Complex	1,754	Dean Smith Center	21,750	Kenan Memorial Stadium	60,000	Fetzer Field	5,025
North Carolina State	Doak Field	2,500	RBC Center Reynolds Coliseum	19,722 14,000	Carter-Finley Stadium	57,583	WakeMed Soccer Park Method Road Soccer Stadium	7,130 3,000
Virginia	Davenport Field	2,924	John Paul Jones Arena	14,593	Scott Stadium	61,500	Klöckner Stadium	8,000
Virginia Tech	English Field	1,033	Cassell Coliseum	10,052	Lane Stadium	66,233	Virginia Tech Lacrosse and Soccer Stadium	2,500
Wake Forest	Gene Hooks Stadium	1,500	Joel Coliseum	14,407	BB&T Field	31,500	Spry Stadium	3,000

Sports

Member universities compete in the following sports:

''Boston College plays ice hockey as a member of Hockey East.

Current Champions

Fall 2007

Sport	School
Cross Country (M)	Virginia
Cross Country (W)	Florida State
Field Hockey	North Carolina
Football	Virginia Tech
Soccer (M)	Boston College
Soccer (W)	North Carolina
Volleyball	Clemson

Winter 2008

Sport	School
Basketball (M)	North Carolina
Basketball (W)	North Carolina
Swimming & Diving (M)	Virginia
Swimming & Diving (W)	Virginia
Indoor Track & Field (M)	Florida State
Indoor Track & Field (W)	Virginia Tech
Wrestling	Maryland

Spring 2008

Sport	School
Baseball	Miami
Golf (M)	Florida State
Golf (W)	Duke
Lacrosse (M)	Duke
Lacrosse (W)	Virginia
Rowing	Virginia
Softball	Virginia Tech
Tennis (M)	Virginia
Tennis (W)	Clemson
Track & Field (M)	Florida State
Track & Field (W)	Virginia Tech

Baseball

National Championships

Wake Forest won the ACC's only national championship in 1955.

School	NCAA Championships	CWS Appearances
Clemson		1958, 1959, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1991, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2006
Duke		1952, 1953, 1961
Florida State		1957, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008
Georgia Tech		1994, 2002, 2006
Miami	1982, 1985, 1999, 2001	1974, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008
North Carolina		1960, 1966, 1978, 1989, 2006, 2007, 2008
North Carolina State		1968
Wake Forest	1955	1949, 1955

Italics denote championships won and appearances made before the school joined the ACC.

Basketball

History

Historically, the ACC has been considered one of the most successful conferences in men's basketball. The early roots of ACC basketball began primarily thanks to two men: Everett Case and Frank McGuire.

North Carolina State coach Everett Case had been a successful high school coach in Indiana who ironically accepted the Wolfpack's head coaching job at a time that the school decided to focus on competing in football with Duke University, then a national power in college football. Case's North Carolina State teams dominated the early years of the ACC with a modern, fast-paced style of play. He became the fastest college basketball coach to reach many 'games won' milestones.

Case eventually became known as the father of ACC basketball. Despite his success on the court, he may have been even a better promoter off the court. Case realized the need to sell his program and university. That is why he organized the funding and construction of Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh as the new home court for his team. At the time, Reynolds was the largest on-campus arena in America, and it was therefore used as the host site for many Southern Conference Tournaments, ACC Tournaments, and the Dixie Classic, an annual event involving the four ACC teams from North Carolina as well as four other prominent programs from across the nation. The Dixie Classic brought in huge revenues for all schools involved and soon became one of the premier sporting events in the south.

At North Carolina, Frank McGuire was hired as the men’s basketball coach to counter Case's personality, as well as the dominant success of his program. McGuire began recruiting in his home area of New York. McGuire knew that basketball was the major high school athletic event of the region, unlike football in the south. Case and McGuire literally invented a rivalry. Both men realized the benefits created through a rivalry between them. It brought more national attention to both of their programs and increased fan support on both sides. For this reason, they often exchanged verbal jabs at each other in public, while maintaining a secret working relationship in private.

In 1957, when McGuire’s North Carolina team won the national championship, an entrepreneur from Greensboro named Castleman D. Chesley noticed the popularity it generated. He developed a five-station television network which began broadcasting regular season ACC games the following season. From that point on, ACC basketball gained immense popularity.

The ACC has been home to many legendary coaches, including Terry Holland, Everett Case, Frank McGuire, Vic Bubas, Press Maravich, Dean Smith, Norm Sloan, Bones McKinney, Al Skinner, Lefty Driesell, Jim Valvano, Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Cremins, Rick Barnes, Gary Williams, and Roy Williams.

Present Day

With the expansion to 12 teams in the 2004-2005 season, the ACC schedule could no longer accommodate a home-and-away series between every pair of teams each season. In the new scheduling model, each team is assigned two permanent partners and nine rotating partners over a three-year period. Teams play their permanent partners in a home-and-away series each year. The rotating partners are split into three groups: three teams who are played in a home-and-away series, three teams who are played at home, and three teams who are played on the road. The rotating partner groups are rotated over the three-year period.

The table below lists each school's two permanent scheduling partners.

School	Partner 1	Partner 2
Boston College	Miami	Virginia Tech
Clemson	Georgia Tech	Florida State
Duke	North Carolina	Maryland
Florida State	Miami	Clemson
Georgia Tech	Clemson	Wake Forest
Maryland	Duke	Virginia
Miami	Boston College	Florida State
North Carolina	Duke	North Carolina State
North Carolina State	North Carolina	Wake Forest
Virginia	Virginia Tech	Maryland
Virginia Tech	Virginia	Boston College
Wake Forest	North Carolina State	Georgia Tech

National Championships

Over the course of its existence, ACC schools have captured 10 NCAA championships. North Carolina has won four , Duke has won three, North Carolina State has won two, and Maryland has won one. In addition, 8 of the 12 members have advanced to the Final Four at least once.

In women's basketball, the ACC has won two national championships, with North Carolina and Maryland. In 2006, Duke, Maryland, and North Carolina all advanced to the Final Four, the first time a conference placed three teams in the women's Final Four. Both 2006 NCAA women's finalists were from the ACC, with Maryland defeating Duke for the title.

School	Helms Athletic Foundation	Men's NCAA	Women's NCAA
Duke		1991, 1992, 2001
Maryland		2002	2006
North Carolina	1924	1957, 1982, 1993, 2005	1994
North Carolina State		1974, 1983

Italics denote championships won before the school joined the ACC.

Field Hockey

National Championships

The ACC have won 13 of the 27 NCAA Championships in field hockey.

School	NCAA
Maryland	1987, 1993, 1999, 2005, 2006
North Carolina	1989, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2007
Wake Forest	2002, 2003, 2004

Football

Divisions

In 2005, the ACC began divisional play in football. Division leaders compete in a playoff game to determine the ACC championship. The inaugural Championship Game was played on December 3, 2005, in Jacksonville, Florida, at the stadium then known as Alltel Stadium, in which Florida State defeated Virginia Tech to capture their 12th championship since they joined the league in 1992. The 2008 ACC Football Championship will be played on December 6, 2008 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

This division structure leads to each team playing the following games:

Five games within its division (one against each opponent)
One game against a designated permanent rival from the other division (not necessarily the school's closest traditional rival, even within the conference)
Two rotating games (one home, one away) against teams in the other division

In the table below, each column represents one division. Each team's designated permanent rival is listed immediately to the left or right in the other column.

Atlantic Division	Coastal Division
Boston College	Virginia Tech
Clemson	Georgia Tech
Florida State	Miami
Maryland	Virginia
North Carolina State	North Carolina
Wake Forest	Duke

Bowl Games

Within the Bowl Championship Series, the Orange Bowl serves as the home of the ACC champion against another BCS at-large selection unless the conference's champion is selected for the national championship game.

The other bowls pick ACC teams in the order listed. As of the 2006 season, the ACC championship game loser cannot fall below the Music City Bowl. Moreover, a bowl game can bypass a team in the selection process only if the two teams in question are within one game of each other in the overall ACC standings. This rule was instituted in response to concerns over the 2005 bowl season, in which Atlantic Division co-champion Boston College fell to the last-pick MPC Computers Bowl (now Humanitarian Bowl).

Pick	Name	Location	Opposing Conference	Opposing Pick
1	FedEx Orange Bowl	Miami Gardens, Florida	BCS
2	Chick-fil-A Bowl	Atlanta, Georgia	SEC	3/4/5
3	Konica Minolta Gator Bowl	Jacksonville, Florida	Big 12	3
			Big East	1
			Notre Dame
4	Champs Sports Bowl	Orlando, Florida	Big Ten	4/5
5	Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl	Nashville, Tennessee	SEC	6/7/8
5	Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl	Nashville, Tennessee	Navy
6	Meineke Car Care Bowl	Charlotte, North Carolina	Big East
7	Emerald Bowl	San Francisco, California	Pac-10	4/5
8	Roady's Humanitarian Bowl	Boise, Idaho	WAC	1
9	Congressional Bowl	Washington, DC	Navy

National Championships

Though the NCAA does not determine an official national champion for Division I FBS football, several ACC members have achieved a national championship through the Associated Press, the Coaches Poll, or the Bowl Championship Series.

School	Helms Athletic Foundation	Associated Press	Coaches Poll	Bowl Championship Series
Clemson		1981	1981
Florida State		1993, 1999	1993, 1999	1999
Georgia Tech	1917, 1928		1990
Maryland		1953	1953
Miami		1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001	1983, 1987, 1989, 2001	2001

Italics denote championships won before the school joined the ACC.

Golf

National Championships

School	Men's Team NCAA	Men's Individual NCAA	Women's Team NCAA	Women's Individual NCAA
Clemson	2003	Charles Warren 1997
Duke			1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007	Candy Hannemann 2001, Virada Nirapathpongporn 2002, Anna Grzebian 2005
Georgia Tech		Watts Gunn 1927, Charles Yates 1934, Troy Matteson 2002
Miami			1984	Penny Hammel 1983
North Carolina		Harvie Ward 1949, John Inman 1984
Virginia		Dixon Brooke 1940
Wake Forest	1974, 1975, 1986	Curtis Strange 1974, Jay Haas 1975, Gary Hallberg 1979

Italics denote championships won before the school joined the ACC.

Lacrosse

National Championships

Since 1971, when the first men's national champion was determined by the NCAA, the ACC has won 10 national championships. Virginia and North Carolina have won four national championships, and Maryland has won two. Women's lacrosse has only awarded a national championship since 1982, and the ACC has won more titles than any other conference. In all, the ACC has won 12 women's national championships: Maryland has won nine and Virginia has won three.

School	Men's NCAA	Women's NCAA	AIAW
Maryland	1973, 1975	1986, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001	1981
North Carolina	1981, 1982, 1986, 1991
Virginia	1972, 1999, 2003, 2006	1991, 1993, 2004

Italics denote championships before the sport was part of the ACC.

Soccer

National Championships

In men's soccer, the ACC has won 12 national championships, including 11 in the 24 seasons between 1984 and 2007. Five have been won by Virginia. The remaining seven have been won by Maryland (twice), Clemson (twice), Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest. During the 2007 season, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest advanced to the College Cup, the final four of men's soccer.

In women's soccer, North Carolina has won 18 of the 25 NCAA titles since the NCAA crowned its first champion, as well as the only Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) soccer championship in 1981. The Tar Heels have also won 18 of the 20 ACC tournaments, losing only to North Carolina State in 1988 and Virginia in 2004, both times by penalty kicks.

School	Men's NCAA	Women's NCAA	AIAW
Clemson	1984, 1987
Duke	1986
Maryland	1968, 2005
North Carolina	2001	1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006	1981
Virginia	1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
Wake Forest	2007