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The Atlantic Coast Conference announced its 54th annual academic honor roll. The honor roll recognizes academic excellence by student-athletes during the 2009-10 academic year.

The honor roll is comprised of student-athletes who participated in a varsity-level sport and registered a grade point average of 3.00 or better for the full academic year. The conference acknowledged 2,761 student-athletes for their hard work in the classroom during the 2009-10 academic year.

Duke led the league with 424 selections. Boston College followed with 363. Maryland was third with 277 honorees, while North Carolina came in fourth with 262. Virginia had 246 student-athletes on the list, followed by Florida State with 216. Clemson and Virginia Techeach had 209 student-athletes recognized. NC State (168), Georgia Tech (155) and Wake Forest (149) and Miami (83) rounded out the list.

Headlining this year’s honor roll are 19 five-time honorees, led by Duke and Virginia Tech which each tallied four. Below are the 21 Hokies that made the list. For a complete list, clickhere.

• Jeffrey Beyer
• Brent Bowden
• Grant Bowden
• Jarrett Boykin
  
• Nekos Brown
• Chris Drager
  
• Joshue Eadie
• Zach Evans
  
• Antone Exum
• Darian Fisher
• Roy Gentry
• George George
• John Graves
  
• Chris Hazley
• Andrew Miller
• Mark Muncey
• Joseph Phillips
• Matt Reidy
• William Tuttle
• David Wang
  
• Jerome Williams

(Source: TheACC.com and HokieSports.com)

Popularity: 11% [?]

Thanks to a new 12-year broadcast deal between the ACC and ESPN, Virginia Tech and the 11 other ACC schools will double their annual TV revenue.

Just weeks after nearly being raided by other college football conferences, the Atlantic Coast Conference signed a new 12-year multimedia broadcast deal with ESPN.

The Associated Press reported that the deal is worth $1.86 billion, however, neither the ACC, nor ESPN would specify the value of the deal. But, when asked about the AP report, ACC commissioner John Swofford said, “I have read some things that have been written that have been quite accurate.”

The proceeds of the contract, according to Swofford, will be divided equally among the 12 member institutions, as has been the case with previous media contracts. The deal, according to Swofford, will more than double each school’s current TV revenue.

The ACC and ESPN announced the new deal on Thursday, July 8. The new agreement will begin with the 2011-2012 academic year and gives ESPN exclusive broadcast rights to every conference-controlled football and men’s basketball game, women’s basketball, Olympic sports games, and conference championships.

The agreement runs through 2022-23 and during that time, nearly 5,000 ACC athletic events will be broadcast on ESPN’s television outlets, digital and mobile platforms, syndication and more.

Raycom Sports, which regularly broadcasts ACC football and basketball games will still be involved and will continue to broadcast games according to ESPN, which called Raycom a valued partner.

George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports pointed out that this is ESPN’s first all-in deal with a conference, noting that ESPN’s deal with the SEC is not exclusive as CBS has some broadcast rights.

And with regards to potential future conference realignment, there are provisions in the contract that deal with conference makeup, so if the conference landscape changes, the ACC and ESPN can renegotiate to reflect any changes.

How this new agreement affects ACC football:

With exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football game, ESPN will serve as the national cable and broadcast TV home for the conference and distributor of syndication telecasts via an agreement with Raycom Sports. With the agreement granting rights to every matchup, there is flexibility where games can be distributed on a weekly basis throughout the season. Outlets will include:

• ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC: The networks will televise ACC games each week, including Thursday, Saturday and a Labor Day Monday telecast each season. The ACC Football Championship Game will continue to be televised each year on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.
• ESPNU: The 24-hour college sports network, currently distributed in more than 70 million households, will continue to televise ACC football. Syndication: ESPN will sublicense games to Raycom Sports and potentially to additional national outlets. As part of the agreement, Raycom Sports will produce and distribute a package of games for over-the-air syndication and for the first time, an additional package of games through regional cable syndication in the ACC markets and beyond.
• ESPN3.com: Exclusive ACC game presentations as well as simulcasts will be offered on the broadband network.
• ESPN 3D: ACC matchups will be part of the live schedule of games offered on the new service.
• ESPN Mobile TV: Extensive ACC content, including highlights and live game simulcasts will be presented on mobile phones.
• ESPN International and ESPN Deportes: The deal includes global rights to present live games and encore presentations across ESPN’s International platforms and domestic Spanish-language rights for ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s 24-hour, U.S.-based network.
• ESPN GamePlan: The out-of-market college football service will continue to offer an extensive weekly schedule of ACC games.
• ESPN Classic: The network may televise live ACC games as well as historic and immediate encore presentations.
• ESPN.com: Extensive ACC content, including highlights, will be presented online.

Popularity: 14% [?]

The first domino has fallen in the college football conference cold war, which is about to turn up the heat. Colorado announced today that it is leaving the Big 12 and heading for the Pac-10. This could be the start of a major reorganization of the college football conferences.

Texas is rumored to bolt from the Big 12 as well, and head either to the Pac 10 or SEC. But that’s not all. Reports have the Pac-10 issuing invites to a total of six Big 12 teams: Colorado (already accepted), Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. If Texas leaves, I’d expect the others to follow suit.

Nebraska, meanwhile, has received an invitation from the Big 10, and all indications are that the Huskers will accept. If all seven of the aforementioned teams leave the Big 12, the conference will not likely survive.

So, where does that leave the ACC? Well, the SEC is reportedly courting Miami, Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech – four of the premiere programs in the ACC. If those four teams join the SEC, the ACC will be left with eights teams and guess where it will look to replenish its ranks? The Big East – where it got Miami, Boston College, and of course, the Virginia Tech Hokies in 2004 (Boston College in 2005).

There are multiple reports on the Web that have the Big 10 is eyeing Rutgers and Syracuse. The Orange would be an ideal fit for the Big 10 because it currently lacks a team in the New York TV market. So, if the Big East loses two of it’s bigger named programs (although the SU football program has been stale for years), it would be down to just six teams.

So, a depleted ACC with eight teams (Miami, FSU, GT and Clemson gone to the SEC) and a Big East with six teams (Syracuse and Rutgers to the Big 10)… Looks like an ACC/Big East merger would be in the works. A two division conference, seven teams per division. Here’s our prediction for the new ACC/Big East conference:

North Division
Boston College
Cincinnati
Louisville
Maryland
Pittsburgh
UConn
West Virginia

South Division
Duke
North Carolina
N.C. State
South Florida
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

Is this ideal? No. Would we rather see the Hokies in the SEC? You betcha. But, this is probably a more likely scenario, should the Big 12 fall apart, as we expect it to do. And if it goes, then the proverbial “dominoes” will fall and the ACC and Big East might have to turn to each other to salvage their conferences. The only question now, is, what will the name of the new conference be? We nominate the BEACC. No brainer, right?

Popularity: 35% [?]

The Atlantic Coast Conference released game times and TV schedules for games early in the 2010 season and the beleaguered ACC steps up to the plate big time in week one. First, North Carolina, which enters the ’10 season with high expectations (again), will be on the “road” to take on LSU of the SEC in the Georgia Dome on Saturday, Sept. 4. The Hokies then travel to FedEx Field in D.C. to take on the Boise State Broncos, which will be a top 5 team going into that game. But that’s not all.

On Sept. 11, Florida State Seminoles travels to Oklahoma for a 3:30 p.m., matchup on ABC/ESPN2. Also on that day, the Miami Hurricanes are at Ohio State (ESPN, 3:40 p.m.), the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets travel to Kansas for a noon game, and the Virginia Cavaliers are on the road against Southern California (10:30 p.m.).

The Hokies already knew their time and TV information for their Sept. 6, matchup against Boise State (8 p.m., ESPN), as well as their Nov. 4 game against Georgia Tech (7:30 p.m., ESPN). But today, they learned that their Sept. 11 home game against JMU will kickoff at 1:30 p.m. and televised on ESPN3.com (formerly ESPN360). The same applies to the following week’s Sept. 18 home games against East Carolina, 1:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN3.com.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Often times, the academic accomplishments of college football players is overlooked by the on-field accolades such as conference player of the year, rookie of the year, etc. So, it’s no surprise that nearly a month ago, four Virginia Tech Hokies were named to the ACC’s All Academic football team, but the news got very little press.

The following Hokies were named to the team:

Brent Bowden, Punter
Jarrett Boykin, Wide Receiver
Chris Drager, Defensive End
John Graves, Defensive Tackle
To be eligible for consideration, a player must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career. All 12 ACC schools were represented by at least one selection on the team. The ACC has selected an ACC All-Academic Football team every year since 1954.

To see a complete list of this year’s team, visit theacc.com.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Blacksburg, VA — He won the Rookie of the Week award seven times this season, so it came as no surprise that Virginia Tech redshirt freshman running back Ryan Williams was named the ACC’s Rookie of the Year today.

Williams broke the ACC and Tech freshman rushing records with 1,358 yards in his first season. He also set new ACC and Tech single-season records for touchdowns with 20 (19 rushing, 1 receiving). It is also the 4th-best single-season rushing total in ACC history.

The former Stonewall Jackson High School standout received 34 votes from 40 voting members. Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly finished second with 29 votes.

Williams was also was named ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year while Kuechly took home the Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Blacksburg, VA — The No. 11 ranked Virginia Tech Hokies (6-2, 9-3) finished their 2009 regular season with a 42-13 mauling of in-state rival, the Virginia Cavaliers (2-6, 3-9) in which redshirt freshman running back Ryan Williams rushed for a career-high 183 yards and four touchdowns.

Today, the ACC recognized Williams’ dominating performance by named him Rookie of the Week for the seventh time this season. In addition to running roughshod over the Cavaliers, Williams broke the ACC’s freshman single-season rushing and touchdown records.

Williams has 1,358 yards this season, which sets a new Virginia Tech and ACC freshman record and ranks second on Tech’s list of best single-season rushing performances. The phenom from Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, Va., needs only 110 yards to break the program’s record, set in 2003 by Kevin Jones, who rushed for 1,647 yards.

The rushing record isn’t the only record that fell to the humble, no-frills freshman. He now owns the ACC’s freshman TD scoring record with 20, breaking N.C. State’s T.A. McLendon’s 2002 record of 18.

See a complete list of the ACC’s weekly awards.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Blacksburg, VA — I fully expected Virginia Tech’s freshman running back Ryan Williams to earn his seventh ACC Rookie of the Week award today. I was so convinced that his 120 yards rushing and four touchdowns, along with breaking the ACC’s freshman rushing record and tying the ACC freshman TD record was more than enough to lock up the award. I even had an article written last night and ready to go as soon as the announcement was released. I was wrong. Sort of.

I also figured that Cody Grimm would get his third Defensive Player of the Week award after tying an NCAA record with three forced fumbles in a game, so I got that right. But I missed on Williams getting another ROTW award.

Boston College freshman outside linebacker Luke Kuechly received that honor this afternoon when the weekly press release went out. Kuechly registered an ACC season-high 19 tackles, including eight solo and 2.5 tackles for loss, in the Eagles 31-13 loss to North Carolina.

I am not here to disparage or take away from Mr. Kuechly’s accomplishment because 19 tackles in a game is incredible, especially for a freshman. Plus, he did it against a pretty good rushing offense that was limited to 96 yards. I was just surprised, that’s all. I am merely surprised.

Perhaps Ryan Williams has set his bar so high that a paultry 120 yards and four rushing touchdowns in a game — which tied a Virginia Tech freshman record — and breaking the ACC’s freshman rushing record just aren’t enough considering what he’s done week in and week out this season.

Williams has become so dominant that he’s literally running over defenders and dragging them effortlessly into the end zone. He’s en route to becoming the most prolific running backs in Virginia Tech’s history. He already:

• owns the ACC and Tech freshman rushing records (1,355 with two games to play);
• obliterated Tech’s freshman scoring record and tied the ACC’s;
• crushed Tech’s freshman record for most 100-yard games in a season and has a shot at breaking the overall school record;
• has been named ACC Rookie of the Week six times;
• ranks seventh in the nation in rushing;
• named a Doak Walker Award semifinalist; and
• has been mentioned as a dark-horse Heisman candidate.

So, when you look accomplishments like those, 120 yards and four touchdowns doesn’t seem like a big deal.

I am not upset or outraged that Williams didn’t get his seventh ACC Rookie of the Week honor — Kuechly is more than deserving — I am just surprised that such a stellar performance did not warrant either Offensive Player of the Week or at least Rookie of the Week. 

I guess the ACC coaches figured that Williams has already made his mark and that another equally deserving performance, like that of Kuechly, should be recognized.

Regardless, it is an individual award that means more to media types like me than it does to the players. I guarantee that Williams, and even Kuechly, would gladly give up all six of his weekly awards for a win or two on the field.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Blacksburg, VA – Cody Grimm, a redshirt senior linebacker for the 14th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies, earned his third ACC Defensive Back of the Week award after leading the Hokies’ defense in shutting down N.C. State’s high-powered offense. Tech won its final home game of the 2009 season, 38-10.Grimm tied an NCAA record with three forced fumbles in the first four N.C. State offensive plays.

On the offensive side of the ball, Sergio Render was named the Offensive Lineman of the Week. The senior from from Newnan, Ga., graded out at 82 percent and recorded a season-high 10 knockdown blocks in the Hokies’ 38-10 win over the Wolfpack. Render helped the Hokie offensive line lead the way for a Virginia Tech offense that piled up 397 yards of total offense, including 200 yards on the ground and 120 yards and four rushing touchdowns from the ACC’s leading rusher Ryan Williams.

The Hokies (5-2, 8-3) play at Virginia (2-5, 3-8) on Saturday, Nov. 28, at 1 p.m.

Complete list of weekly ACC awards.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Blacksburg, VA — While the Heisman Trophy may be a long shot for Virginia Tech freshman running back Ryan Williams, the Doak Walker Award, given to college football’s premiere running back, appears well within his reach.

Today, the Guaranty Bank SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors announced today the 10 semifinalists for the 2009 Doak Walker Award and Williams is on the list.

Williams and Pittsburgh’s Dion Lewis are the only freshmen on the list. And despite what many consider a down year for the conference, the ACC has three running backs on the list. In addition to Williams, the ACC’s leading rusher, Clemson’s C.J. Spiller and Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer are also named as semifinalists.

Williams has earned the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Rookie of the Week award six times this season. The talented freshman is the first ACC running back to rush for more than 1,100 yards in 2009 and needs only 157 yards to break Tech’s freshman rushing record (1,265) set by Darren Evans last season.

The complete list of the 2009 Doak Walker Award semifinalists and their national ranking for rushing:

Donald Buckram (Jr.) UTEP (4th)
Jonathan Dwyer (Jr.) Georgia Tech (16th)
Toby Gerhart (Sr.) Stanford (2nd)
Mark Ingram (So.) Alabama (6th)
Dion Lewis (Fr.) Pittsburgh (7th)
Ryan Mathews (Jr.) Fresno State (1st)
Jacquizz Rodgers (So.) Oregon State (15th)
C.J. Spiller (Sr.) Clemson (44th)
Ben Tate (Sr.) Auburn (12th)
Ryan Williams (Fr.) Virginia Tech (9th)

About the Doak Walker Award

The 130 members of the Doak Walker Award National Selection Committee will cast their votes to determine the 2009 finalists. On Monday, November 23, three finalists will be named, and a second vote by the Doak Walker Award National Selection Committee will determine the recipient. The 2009 Doak Walker Award recipient will be announced live on The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards on Thursday, December 10.

The Award is named after three-time SMU All-American running back and 1948 Heisman Trophy winner Doak Walker. Walker, who also punted, returned kicks and kicked extra points, led the Mustangs to two Southwest Conference Championships. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions and led the league in scoring his rookie year. During his six years with the Lions, he led the team to two NFL championships and was chosen All-Pro four times. Walker is a member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

For more information about the Doak Walker award, visit http://smu.edu/doakwalker/

Popularity: 14% [?]