Syracuse Football: Georgia Tech lost but showed ACC is under-rated, SEC is over-rated

As Syracuse football entertains No. 6 Miami on Saturday afternoon at the JMA Wireless, the Orange has a chance, with a win, to knock the Hurricanes out of a possible ACC championship game berth and a potential bid to the 12-team College Football Playoff ("CFP").

No. 9 SMU will play in the upcoming ACC title contest, which takes place on Saturday, Dec. 7, in Charlotte, N.C. If Miami falls at 'Cuse, No. 12 Clemson will battle SMU in that affair.

Regardless of which teams play in the ACC championship encounter, this league does have a realistic shot at getting at least two of its members into the CFP. That won't likely prove as many CFP participants as the Big Ten Conference and the Southeastern Conference will possess, but the ongoing notion that those two leagues are light-years ahead of the ACC and the Big 12 Conference in college football during the 2024 season is a tired argument that I'm getting sick of hearing.

Such a sentiment was exacerbated earlier this week when Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, in essence, trashed the ACC and the Big 12. Yet on Friday evening, in a thrilling game, the ACC showed that perhaps it is under-rated, and the SEC is over-rated.

Syracuse football and its ACC peers have put forth a strong 2024 campaign.

Week 14 includes a lot of rivalry games. One of them took place on Friday night, when ACC member Georgia Tech had No. 7 Georgia on the ropes. Ultimately, the Bulldogs would prevail, 44-42 in a ridiculous eight overtimes.

So it's true that Georgia won this game and is likely headed to the CFP regardless of how it fares in the SEC championship game, where it will play either No. 3 Texas or No. 20 Texas A&M. But it's also true that Georgia Tech, a team that Syracuse football defeated earlier this season, had Georgia on the ropes, in a contest that occurred on the Bulldogs' turf.

To me, even with this heart-breaking setback, the Yellow Jackets showed that the ACC is a legit conference, and all the gushing over the SEC maybe should stop.

Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney, in a piece on November 29, wrote in part: "the jury is still out on whether the SEC is the best conference in college football this season and just beating up on each other or it’s a whole bunch of above-average teams and the Big Ten is king this year. ... With the playoff rankings coming into even more focus, should a three-loss SEC team get in over a two-loss ACC team? A two-loss Big Ten squad? It will all work itself out but the SEC ego might be a little inflated this season."

I'm in no way suggesting that the ACC is better than the SEC. What I am saying is that the separation between the SEC and the ACC isn't as large as some are opining, including Kiffin.

On Saturday, beginning at noon, Clemson will host in-state rival and No. 15 South Carolina in another ACC-SEC clash. Granted, the Tigers are at home in this collision, yet if Clemson emerges victorious, it's just another example of how the SEC isn't so superior, and the ACC isn't so inferior.