The ACC And Super Bowl Sunday

A few ACC traditions endure. At least we’ve still got an ACC game on Super Bowl Sunday.

The league and our national football holiday have been linked since an undefeated NC State squad led by David Thompson edged a comparably gifted Maryland team 87-85 in January 1973. The late score by the ACC’s greatest player, a tip of a missed shot at the buzzer, sealed the outcome in an unusual national telecast of a college game in that pre-cable, pre-dunk era.

Given the formidable stature of the opponent, the Wolfpack’s win also marked a crucial step in maintaining the second and last unblemished season record in conference history.

The ACC contest brimmed with drama, in sharp contrast with the lackluster 14-7 Super Bowl that followed. The Miami Dolphins handily won Super Bowl VII despite the close final score, concluding the only undefeated NFL season (17-0) since the 1967 advent of the Game Of Multimillion Dollar Commercials.

The most memorable, and comic, play in that Super Bowl came when a 41-yard field goal attempt was blocked late in the game. The Dolphins’ left-footed kicker, Garabed “Garo” Yepremian, recovered and tried to pass the ball, only to have it intercepted and run back for a touchdown. That was it for scoring by Washington.

Last season, shortly after Florida State crushed Clemson in ACC action, the Super Bowl saw New England rally to defeat the Atlanta Falcons and NFL Player of the Year Matt Ryan, a Boston College grad.

This year BC, which has yet to appear on Super Bowl Sunday as an ACC member, hosts Georgia Tech, making its 10th appearance as prelude to the Main Event. Only three ACC teams played more often on Super Bowl Sunday than the Yellow Jackets.

The BC-Tech matchup corrects some lingering imbalances in the ACC’s relationship with pro football’s big day. Others remain unaddressed.

Certainly it’s strange that Duke, with its competitive pedigree, has appeared prior to fewer Super Bowls (7) than NC State (15), North Carolina (14), Maryland (11 while in the league), Florida State (10), Georgia Tech (10), Wake Forest (9) and Virginia (9).

The Yellow Jackets appeared seven times in 11 years from 1989 through 1999 on Super Bowl Sunday, all when Bobby Cremins was head coach.

NC State, at 10-5, remains the most successful and prolific ACC team playing in tandem with the Largest Halftime Show on Earth, although it last appeared as an appetizer in 2008.

BC’s initial inclusion reduces the number of former Big East teams to four – Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech – that have yet to participate as ACC members in preludes to football’s Roman Numeral Extravaganza. BC,Miami and Virginia Tech have been in the ACC since the mid-2000s, the Irish, Panthers and Orange since 2014. Louisville came aboard in 2015.

When Georgia Tech plays to precede the big party, it’s 3-6. When the Yellow Jackets lose, AFC and NFC teams are 3-3, a draw. NFC teams are 2-1 when the Jackets are victorious. The AFC’s Denver Broncos are 3-0 when Georgia Tech’s loses prior to the Super Bowl, and the NFC’s San Francisco 49ers are 2-0 following a Jacket grounding.

Neither the AFC’s Patriots nor the NFC’s Eagles have made a Super Bowl appearance on the same day Georgia Tech played. New England is making its tenth Super Appearance in the ACC-prelude era, going 5-4 in its previous tries. Philadelphia is making its third Super trip, and is winless so far.

Last year Florida State enjoyed its eighth Super Spot since 2003, the season Leonard Hamilton arrived at Tallahassee. That’s a remarkable rate of better than once every other year for 15 years -- including five of six Super Bowl Sundays between 2003 and 2008 -- and easily the best by any ACC member over that span. FSU tied for second in the league last season and won handily in the Big Prelude against Clemson, which finished 12th.