The Death of the Florida State Mystique

Following Florida State's 24-21 loss to up-and-coming-but-still-not-overly-talented Wake Forest last night, it seems like a good time to take note of just how far FSU has fallen since joining the ACC in 1992.

ACC Losses by Year

1992 - None

1993 - None

1994 - None

1995 - Virginia (Shared ACC Championship, Orange Bowl)

1996 - None

1997 - None

1998 - NC State (Shared ACC Championship, Orange Bowl)

1999 - None

2000 - None

2001 - North Carolina, NC State

2002 - NC State

2003 - Clemson

2004 - Miami, Maryland

2005 - Virginia, NC State, Clemson

2006 - Clemson, NC State, Boston College, Maryland, Wake Forest

2007 - Clemson, Wake (still games against Miami, Duke, #4 BC, #12 VT, and Maryland)

Note also that Florida State played in either the Orange, Sugar, or Fiesta Bowl in every year since 1992 except 2001 (Gator v. VT), 2004 (Gator v. WVU), and 2006 (Emerald v. UCLA).

It is impossible to overstate how dominant Florida State was for the first 9 years of ACC play. As a Maryland fan, there was never any consideration that you would beat Florida State. You just wanted to win enough other games to get the Gator Bowl bid. It's tough to blame conference expansion, as they've only lost once to Miami and once to BC thus far.

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What's more troubling from an FSU fan's perspective is not just that they're losing ACC games, but that they're losing them to teams in the middle of the conference, like NC State, Maryland, Virginia, and UNC. At least Clemson, BC and Miami are established football schools. The middle ACC teams, at least until 2000, had lost before they ever took the field. Just the FSU uniform put the opponent in a 21-0 hole.

I really like Bobby Bowden, but I don't know that he has the energy to keep up with Miami, Florida, and now South Florida and Central Florida too.

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Ok, maybe recruiting isn't THAT hard. God I love Jenn Sterger.