Has the ACC lost its mojo overall? Football is weak, basketball seems a bit top heavy but overall pretty weak, only on the lesser sports do we seem to hold our own with other P5 conferences...
Is it all $$$?
The SEC made it a point to make quality coaching hires some 8-10 years ago. They have done just that with the additions of Rick Barnes, Eric Musselman, Nate Oats, Mike White, Will Wade and Buzz Williams. Those have been successful while a couple others, Ben Howland, Tom Crean, Cuonzo Martin and Kermit Davis have/were not. *Insert Peacone/Howland joke here*
They made two other really good hires this past offseason with Matt McMahon (Murray State) and Dennis Gates (Cleveland State). Im not quite as sold on Todd Golden but we shall see.
Meanwhile the ACC is losing their tentpoles as Roy and K have retired while Boeheim (78) , Hamilton (74), Larranage (73) and Brey (63) are aging. The good young coaches such as Capel, Pastner, and Keatts have yet to really establish consistency. Brownell parlayed a sweet 16 appearance into somehow untouchable status and the jury is still out on Grant ( I like him but I am not sure many can win in Chestnutt Hill), Forbes and Payne. This leaves Virginia (top five coach in the country) and Virginia Tech (one of the top five most underrated coaches in the country) as the two ACC programs who kind of know exactly what they are and who they will be for at least the next 3-5 years.