Putting Virginia Tech's 2022 ACC Championship in Perspective

Despite being a big sports fan in general, I've never paid THAT much attention to the ACC Tournament. As a VT graduate living in the DMV for 30 years, I've disliked UVA and Maryland for years, and it always annoyed me how big a deal they considered the ACC Tournament. After Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004, I still didn't care much about it. That's because as a VT fan the only thing I ever cared about was how many games we needed to win to make the NCAAs. Some years I knew we'd have to win the ACC Tournament to get in, and since I never considered that a possibility, those years I almost literally ignored the tournament.

This year, once again I was only interested in how many games Virginia Tech needed to win to shove Joe Lunardi's bracketology up his ass sideways. Like the rest of you I watched as Mike Young led Wofford Virginia Tech past Clemson with a hail mary, ground down Notre Dame, and then pistol-whipped the blue blood out of UNC and Duke to become the 2022 ACC Men's Basketball Champions (say it out loud, it really rolls off the tongue).

So with my newfound respect for the venerable ACC Tournament, I watched the post-game press conference. Mike Young was asked what winning the ACC championship means for him as a guy who grew up watching Virginia Tech as a Southwest Virginia native. In typical Mike Young fashion, he deflected the attention from himself and instead talked about how important it was for Blacksburg, southwest Virginia, and the state of Virginia overall. So that made me curious and I looked up the history of the ACC Tournament. Here are some of the numbers that stood out to me:

--The ACC Tournament has been played since 1954 (69 years); Duke has 21 championships, North Carolina 18 and NC State 10 - so that's 49 out of 69 (71%) for just those 3 teams.
--Original ACC members Virginia and Maryland each only won 3 championships in all that time, in spite of both having (grudgingly) historic programs; Virginia only had ONE title before 2014 (1976, 2014, 2018), Maryland won in 1958, 1984, 2004
--Original member Wake Forest and Georgia Tech (joined in 1978) each have 4 titles
--Five other teams have a single title: VIRGINIA TECH, Notre Dame (joined in 2013), Miami (joined 2004), FSU (joined 1991) and South Carolina (member from 1953-1971)
--Five schools have no ACC titles, although most of those are relatively new schools to the league: Louisville (2014), Pitt (2013), Syracuse (2013), Boston College (2005); Clemson is an original member with no ACC titles

So yeah, Mike Young is absolutely right. This is a big deal for Virginia. It's a big deal for Blacksburg. It's only the 4th ACC title in 69 years won by a Virginia school. I hope we kick ass in the NCAA Tournament. But no matter what happens, these Virginia Tech players who won an ACC title for Virginia Tech will be legends in Blacksburg for the rest of their lives.