Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference[1] (commonly ACC) is a one of the major college sports conferences in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The twelve schools in the ACC are all located on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, between Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts and Miami University in Miami, Florida, with most of the schools located in the Mid-Atlantic from Maryland to South Carolina. The schools in the ACC compete in twenty sports, but the most well known (or at least the most televised) are football and men's and women's basketball.
Members
The Atlantic Coast Conference consists of college in 7 states. Boston College is located in Massachusetts. University of Maryland is located in Maryland, and the University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (commonly Virginia Tech or VT) are both located in Virginia. North Carolina is represented by Duke, the University of North Carolina (UNC), North Carolina State University, and Wake Forest. Clemson is further south in South Carolina, and Georgia Tech is in Georgia. Intrastate rivals Miami and Florida State University (FSU) round out the 12 ACC teams.
Football
Since 2005, in football the ACC is divided into two divisions.[2] Each team plays 12 or 13 games, with eight games played within the conference. Of the eight conference games, five are played against division opponents (such that each team plays everyone in its division), one is against a rival in the opposite conference, and two are played against other teams in the opposite conference.
The top team in each division (as determined by conference record) plays in the ACC Championship in Jacksonville, Florida in early December, with the winner of that game clinching a spot in the Orange Bowl (if not competing for the national championship).
Basketball
The ACC is a strong conference in college basketball, both historically and through the present day.