Let's talk about the ACC Coastal Division. The Coastal has won the last two ACC titles (should've won the last 4 if not for terrible offensive coordinators). The Coastal Division is currently 5-0 against the Atlantic and has three teams ranked in the top 25. There's a joke called "parity" in the Atlantic. The Coastal is all that keeps the ACC's credibility afloat.

Since the 2005 division system, three teams have dominated the Coastal: VT, GT, and Miami. From 2005-2008, the three teams have combined for 60 wins versus the bottom three only combining for 30.

I broke down every teams ACC wins/losses per week since 2005. Here's a table that shows the ACC Coastal Race since 2005:



There have been 54 weeks of games played since 2005. If we were to break it down by who has led or was tied for the Coastal lead via ACC winning percentage, it'd go like this: VT (33 weeks), GT (20 weeks), Miami (19 weeks), UVA (10 weeks), Duke (5 weeks), and UNC (4 weeks). Duke and UNC always manage to steal a week or two because everyone starts the season tied at 0.00%. UVA had a good run in 2007, which accounts for their 10 weeks of leading the ACC. And of course, VT has dominated the division.

Hence, the importance of this week's homecoming matchup. It's time for a changing of the guard. People are tired of Beamer Ball reppin' the ACC on the national stage. No one wants to see A+ special teams, A- defense, and B- offense. Everyone wants to watch A+ offense while the rest of the team chills on the sideline. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Here's a question telegraphed in by one of our most hardcore fans:

Dear Bird Flu [stop], What happens if GT beats VT [stop] and GT, Miami, and VT all win out with one ACC loss? [stop] Who wins the Coastal? [stop]
Hugs and Kisses,
Jerry J. [stop]

Good question Jerry. Let's look at the tie breaker policy on theACC.com. There are eight rules for a tie in the ACC title hunt. Here they are:

1. Combined head-to-head record among the tied teams.
2. Records of the tied teams within the division.
3. Head-to-head competition versus the team within the division with the best overall (divisional or conference) record, and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken first to last.
4. Overall record for non-divisional teams.
5. Combined record versus all common non-divisional teams.
6. Record versus common non-divisional with the best overall Conference (divisional and non-divisional record) and proceeding through the other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within the division.
7. The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the conclusion of regular season games shall be the divisional representative in the ACC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the ACC Championship Game.
8. The representative shall be chosen by a draw.

The tie breaker rules go in order of fairness. #1 is simple. Who won the games played amongst the tied teams? In this case, it'd still be a tie. #2 would also be a tie because everyone would only have 1 loss. #3 would be a tie as well because everyone played and beat/lost to the team with the best overall record in the division. #4, #5, & #6 are still a tie because the Atlantic is terrible and we're all gonna win our Atlantic games. #7 is where we should fret because in this case a win over VT would drop VT below us in the rankings but Miami would still be above us. Then, if we're similarly ranked, Miami would still beat us out because they beat us head-head.

Everything could be a huge cluster if all three teams win out. However, we'd prefer everyone win out over the possibility of us beating VT and them falling into a state of disrepair and losing additional games. A tie breaker with Miami = Miami instant win. So VT is only allowed to suck on October 17th and must play ridiculous football from then on. I'll leave you with one last chart. A graph of the running ACC winning percentage since the inception of the Coastal Division: