@ Boston College 30, BYU 23 (OT)
Didn't seem like much at the time — being at BC and with BYU already owning a loss to Arizona — but the Cougars would win their next 10 games and finish the season ranked No. 16 in the country — two spots in front of any ACC team.

Wake 27, @ Ole Miss 3
OK, Ole Miss is not LSU or Florida or Auburn or you get the point, but imagine if the eventual ACC champion would have lost to the 11th-place SEC team? That's a hole the ACC never would have been able to dig out of.

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07/26/07 at 15:57
I was loudly pulling for State here in Boone for the first game of last season, but there is no way the Pack beats Appalachian at the end of the season, or even by the middle of the losing slide. Williams, the true freshman quarterback who was a force at the end, hadn't even entered the lineup. Factor in the momentum running heavily in opposite directions, take away home field by putting it in Charlotte in November, and State would have been doubly embarrassed. Not only blown out on the field, but heavily out-numbered in the stands.
Don't know about whether this was a good win or a bad loss for either side - just a game that didn't reflect where the programs were three months later. But maybe catching someone at the right time is part of getting good wins.

07/26/07 at 21:18
I agree that ASU was a much better team at the end of the season. I watched them demolish a good Youngstown State team in the playoff semi-final. They were outstanding in every area.

But I still think there is a huge difference between a BCS team and any 1-AA (sorry FCS doesn't do it for me) team. The differences in depth make it tough for a 1-AA team to stay with a 1-A team for 60 minutes. Then again, the Pack was so bad at the end of the year...

07/27/07 at 09:19
It was a tough year. But this is looking for the silver lining too much. "Beating Ole Miss was good because a loss would have really shown how bad the conference is." Come on.

I think the list would be better stopped after the BC-BYU game.

But I think you came up with the right word: "desperate".

07/27/07 at 11:19
^^That's the point. The BC win was just about the only good thing the ACC did out of the conference in 2006.

The other games just emphasize that point.

— JPG

07/27/07 at 17:41
i think it's funny how cocky App fans are. it made it that much better when we whooped em.

07/27/07 at 21:44
You must be joking. Offsetting a potentially disastrous loss does not make a game a good win. Let's face it. There were no good non-ACC wins last season.