By Ed McGranahan.

By Ed McGranahan

For more than a decade the ACC failed to stand up to the bullies from the SEC, and despite all the bombast, hubris and rhetoric each season it was clear the league felt like a perpetual underdog.

That has changed. There’s a new Big Dog on the block.

A renewed spirit and evidence of ebullience permeated the ACC Kickoff in Greensboro, the residual benefit of last season’s successes by Florida State, Clemson and teams up and down the league.

Clemson’s win over Ohio State in the Orange Bowl marked only the second time a conference had won a national championship and a second BCS bowl game in the same season.

In addition, the ACC counted 11 programs with bowl invitations, 11 teams with winning records, which was the most by any league in 81 years.

For the first time every significant individual post-season award – from the Heisman to the Outland – went to a player from an ACC school.

And the 42 selection from league schools during the NFL Draft was the ACC’s second highest total in history.

Each year John Swofford spins the numbers and beats the drum during the commissioner’s message, trying to draw a happy face after another year of disappointment. Swofford required little spinning last week. After years of being marginally relevant, the ACC kicked dirt in the face of the neighborhood bully.

All the more encouraging is the belief that the ACC shouldn’t be a one-and-done, one-hit wonder. This ain’t your daddy’s ACC.

The league could be even stronger going forward with the addition of Louisville, which will obviously leverage the basketball RPI, and an occasional spin around the block with Notre Dame.

And a lot must happen for Florida State to repeat, but it isn’t out of the question that with 15 starters returning from what Coach Jimbo
Fisher believes was one of the greatest college teams ever (that’s a lot of “hubris”) the Seminoles could be in the mix again.

Now twice as many teams are in play for the national championship once the dust settles. There’s a presumption that the SEC would receive two spots each year. That the committee charged with picking the Final Four could be manipulated by any four-letter TV network.

There probably isn’t a Congressional committee that will face as much scrutiny and mandate of accountability than the group selecting those teams. While the chairman is from an SEC school, the committee is cut from a diverse bolt including Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich.

Jimbo also said the ACC doesn’t take a backseat to anybody, calling 2013 season the most dominant season by any league, any year – heady stuff for a league that’s rarely been significant in college football, but look at the possibilities with a Coastal Division that Larry Fedora believes is wide open with at least seven teams reasonable contenders, and the Atlantic with Louisville now giving FSU and Clemson one more reason to pause.

One thing Fisher knows for sure, it could all blow up before the end of September if his team can’t handle Clemson’s defense in Tallahassee, if Jameis Winston can’t stay out of trouble and if the Seminoles start believing they’re invincible.

Confidence, bombast and hubris are fine if, as John Wayne once said, “it’s not braggin’, just fact.”