LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips is not pleased with the College Football Playoff committee.
He is perturbed Miami tumbled out of the bracket.
He is not happy the wise guys are saying that SMU will also miss the 12-team field if the Mustangs are defeated by Clemson in the ACC title game Saturday in Charlotte.
He is not happy at the idea of one ACC team being surrounded by four Big Ten and four Southeastern conference teams when the playoff hitting begins Dec. 20.
But Phillips has another issue, that has to embarrass Michael Jordan, Grant Hill, Tim Duncan, Ralph Sampson and any other player that made the ACC the ACC.
The unrelenting dominance SEC men's basketball programs have flexed on the ACC all season.
And I do mean all season, not simply the previous two nights when SEC teams won 14 of 16 games against the ACC in the challenge series between the two high-octane leagues.
Those 14 victories bumped the SEC's full-season record against the ACC to 26 wins and three defeats, a winning percentage of nearly 90 against the league of Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski.
Pitt defeated LSU, 74-63, on Nov. 22.
Clemson defeated Kentucky, 70-66, on Tuesday night.
Duke handled Auburn, 84-78, on Wednesday night.
Other than that?
Don't ask.
Over the last decade, the ACC has shed five coaches who won national titles — Rick Pitino, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, Coach K and Tony Bennett. It shows
Over the last decade, the SEC has pumped more money into basketball while adding coaches like Nate Oats, Rick Barnes, Bruce Pearl and Chris Beard. It shows.
A note of perspective: Gloom and doom surrounded ACC basketball last season, too. The league earned only five spots in the NCAA Tournament in a season when the SEC and Big 12 earned eight and the Big Ten and Mountain West six.
Then the games were played. Four ACC teams advanced to the Sweet Sixteen and three to the Elite Eight. No other league matched that.
Only the Big East, which finished 10-2 carried by UConn's six-game run to winning the title, had a stronger tournament record than the ACC's 12-5.
In other words, Dec. 5 is not the day to write an obituary on a season.
But it is a day to outline several items:
These losses were not buzzer beaters and banked in shots.
The SEC's average margin of victory in its 14 wins was — gulp — 16 points.
Eleven wins were by at least 10 points. Five were by 20 or more.
Unranked Mississippi State dispatched No. 18 Pittsburgh by 33.
SEC teams were ahead at halftime in 10 of 16 games, by double figures in four of them.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, LSU and Missouri erased halftime leads to win — with Missouri scoring 63 points in the second half to defeat California, 98-93.
SEC teams dominated ACC teams from the three-point line.
A dozen SEC teams made more shots from distance than their ACC opponent, leading the SEC teams to outscore the ACC, 405-312, on three-point shots.
Seven SEC teams made 10 or more three-pointers, including John Calipari's Arkansas team, which went 11 from 23 from distance while defeating Miami, 76-73. (It's true. I doubled checked the numbers.)
Meanwhile, six ACC teams made five or fewer threes, led by Boston College, which went 2 for 16 in a 73-51 loss to South Carolina.
The post-Challenge analytics are not kind to the ACC.
This event is an ESPN production, designed to drive eyeballs to the network's inventory before college football bowl season begins. It's no coincidence that the games are played during the week after the college football regular season ends.
But they are also games that become currency in March, when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee gathers to pick the 68-team field.
It will drive the narrative that SEC basketball is tougher than a $2 steak and ACC basketball is tapioca pudding.
The computer numbers scream about the gap between the leagues.
Six SEC teams sit in the top 10 of the NCAA Net rankings on Thursday morning, including four of the top six.
One ACC team sits in the top 10.
Eight SEC teams are ranked in the Top 25, 10 in the Top 40 and 14 in the top 60.
Three ACC teams are ranked in the Top 25, three in the Top 40 and six in the top 60.
The lowest ranked SEC team is South Carolina at No. 89.
Nine ACC teams — Notre Dame, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Virginia, Syracuse, Miami, Georgia Tech, Boston College and Virginia Tech (No. 231) — are ranked below the Gamecocks.
Fairness requires a note that the ACC carries two more programs than the SEC's 16. Stanford and SMU did not participate in the Challenge.
But Phillips and his collection of coaches have work to do over the 101 days until Selection Sunday.
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