By Garrett Strunk
SouthernPigskin.com

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2013 marks the last year where the Orange Bowl is contractually obligated to take the ACC champs, a partnership that began in 2005.

As the years melt away and the time for re-negotiations inch closer, the ACC has two years tops to prove that they can attract national interest to a game that has been a ratings disaster up to this point.

The first game in this arrangement started off with a bang. National intrigue was high on the ACC, the conference just wrapped up its first season with 12 teams and its first conference championship game. Besides having two great fan bases with both having a strong national following, the Orange Bowl had a great story line between FSU and Penn State’s legendary head coaches Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno. The Neilsen ratings spiked at 12.3, the 2nd highest rating in that bowl’s history and 22nd highest overall. The sold out crowd of 77,773 was rewarded with a great game in a triple over time thriller.

Unfortunately for the Orange Bowl and the ACC, it could never duplicate that success of 2005. In the following seasons which saw Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech (3x), the attendance declined each year to a low of 65,453 in 2010 and the bowl game would never come close to that 12.3 benchmark that FSU and PSU set. In 3 of 5 years it received the lowest Neilsen rating of the BCS bowls and came in 2nd to last of the BCS bowls in the other two years.

It can be argued that its not totally the ACC’s fault, their opponents were not exactly interesting from a national standpoint; Louisville, Kansas and Cincinnati are better known for their basketball prowess, Iowa and Stanford were 2nd place finishers in their own conference.

Also unfortunate, the games were mostly dull from an offensive standpoint and predictable with the ACC team humiliated in 5 of the 6 games. The ACC has not fielded many teams as of late in the national title picture and the conference is mostly perceived as weak and as some sort of a joke.

Fair or not, the ACC needs FSU or Miami, two schools with national interest and rich tradition, get back to the Orange Bowl and most importantly win some of these games to give back the ACC its respect. Then and only then will the Orange Bowl renew its ties to the ACC, if its not already too late.