Super Bowl Sunday And The ACC

A few ACC traditions endure. The league’s headquarters remains in Greensboro. The postseason ACC Tournament continues despite last year’s abortive ending, although there’s talk of teams assured of NCAA bids skipping this year’s event to avoid COVID exposure.

And, for a while, it appeared there would still be an ACC men’s game on Super Bowl Sunday, a pairing whose historic nature receives scant attention from the conference, its TV partners or regional media. Now that quiet tradition has gone the way of the round robin, at least for this season.

Miami was slated to play Pitt this Sunday, Feb. 7, the second straight Biggest Game Day appearance by the Panthers. A like privilege was previously enjoyed by Miami in 2015 and 2016.

But then the Boston College basketball program was beset by COVID complications, causing Pitt’s visit to BC on Jan. 23 to be postponed. The Panthers’ Super Sunday visit to Wake was moved up two weeks to fit that schedule slot; Pitt lost at Wake 76-75, blemishing an 8-2 start, its best under Jeff Capel.

The shift left Feb. 7 as an unused playing date, barring a last-minute schedule scramble. That ended, at least for this year, the link between the ACC and America’s football holiday. The league previously skipped its tie-in opportunity as a prelim to the Big Bowl in 1975, 1984, 1985 and 1992.

The ACC’s bond with the Super Bowl dates to January 1973. That year undefeated and second-ranked NC State led by David Thompson and Tom Burleson edged a No. 3 Maryland team spearheaded by Tom McMillen and Len Elmore, 87-85. A late score on a tip-in of a missed shot at the buzzer, executed by Thompson, the ACC’s greatest player to date, sealed the outcome in a rare national telecast of college ball featuring ACC heavyweights in that pre-cable, pre-dunk era.

Given the formidable stature of the opponent, the Wolfpack’s win at Maryland also marked a crucial step in maintaining the second and last unblemished season record in conference history. (On probation in 1972-73, NC State was banned from amplifying its 27-0 mark in postseason play. Previously UNC turned in a 32-0 record in winning the 1957 NCAA championship.)

The ‘73 ACC contest brimmed with drama, in sharp contrast with the lackluster 14-7 Super Bowl VII that followed. The Miami Dolphins won handily 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 football game included one of the most memorable, and comic, plays in Super Bowl history. The Dolphins’ left-footed kicker, Garabed “Garo” Yepremian, had his 41-yard, late-game field goal blocked, recovered the ball and tried a pass, only to have his flaccid attempt intercepted and run back for a touchdown.

That was it for scoring by Washington, among 10 teams that failed to reach double digits in the first LIV Super Bowls. Among that group were the LA Rams, a supposedly groundbreaking offensive force who tallied a field goal and were outplayed by Tom Brady and New England in 2019. LA’s featured quarterback of the future, Jared Goff, was traded away in Jan. 2021.

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 accoutrement in 2008.

Boston College’s 2018 inclusion reduced the number of former Big East teams to four that have yet to participate as ACC members in pre-Super festivities (Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech).

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel played twice for Duke on Super Sundays, splitting with Maryland as an upperclassman in 1996 and 1997. NFC teams won both times. Capel is now 1-0 as a coach after last year’s 62-57 win.

Super Bowl LV is at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium in 2021, the area’s fifth time hosting. Both the NFC and AFC champs have each won twice in Tampa Bay, with the NY Giants appearing in three of the four games, winning two titles. Only Miami, New Orleans and LA have been Super Bowl sites more often.