Super Bowl Sunday And ACC Basketball

A few ACC traditions endure. At least we’ve still got an ACC game on Super Bowl Sunday, although the conference and its TV partners are remarkably quiet on the subject.

The league and our national football holiday have shared a rich link since an undefeated NC State squad led by David Thompson edged a comparably gifted Maryland team 87-85 in January 1973. A late score by Thompson, 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 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 Boston College went to overtime to defeat Georgia Tech, New England, an NFL team from Boston, fell to Philadelphia, another city rife with insurgents resistant to the status quo during our uncivil revolution.

The Yellow Jackets once owned the prelude to the Roman Numeral Extravaganza, appearing seven times in 11 years from 1989 through 1999 on Super Bowl Sunday, all when Bobby Cremins was head coach.

This year Clemson seeks its first win in four tries on Super Bowl Sunday. The Tigers are matched against Wake Forest, another of the six original ACC members remaining in the league. Wake is making its 10th appearance in a Main Event appetizer, as did Georgia Tech last year. Only three ACC teams played more often on Super Bowl Sunday.

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 (10) and Virginia (9).

Then again, why use one of your premium viewership draws on a day devoted to another sport?

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 a Super accouterment in 2008.

BC’s 2018 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 pre-Super festivities. 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 Clemson plays, and loses, to precede the big party, NFC teams are 2-1 and the New England Patriots are 1-1. When Wake wins, as it did three times, NFC teams are 2-1. NFC squads are also 5-1 when the Demon Deacons lose earlier in the day, including Dallas at 2-0.

Among the NFC winners in the wake of a Deac defeat was St. Louis in 2000. The Rams recently were seduced by L.A. after a happy marriage in Missouri.