James from yet another… N.C. State Sports Blog is in charge of guiding this week’s roundtable journey. So sit back, relax and enjoy the carnage. On an unrelated, and far more important note, our sincerest best wishes to Wolfpack offensive coordinator Dana Bible who was diagnosed with Leukemia.

1) The ACC scheduling gods really did their best this year to ensure a true “rivalry” week to conclude the season. Here in North Carolina, the two large state schools (N.C. State and Carolina) and the two smaller private schools (Duke and Wake) face off against one another. Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Virginia and Virginia Tech all face off against in-state foes. Even the Boston College/Maryland game has a twinge of regional flavor to it, pitting the two northern-most schools of the ACC against one another. On paper, is this the best rivalry week lineup in recent memory?

In terms of scheduling, the ACC, respective athletic programs and their opponents put forth a best effort to play these games in the final week of the regular season. However, for the ACC, this is one of the least sexy rivalry weeks that I can remember. Other than bragging rights, which mean everything locally and squat nationally, nothing is on the line. There isn’t even a single 5-6 team fighting for a bowl bid.

2) Clemson and Georgia Tech will face one another in the ACC title game. Do you think both teams facing out-of-conference rivals the week prior will help or hurt either team’s performance in the big game, depending on the outcomes of these rivalry games?

Overall I think it will help both teams because it is another week to prepare, practice and become a better football team. The only way a positive u-turns into a negative would be injuries.

3) It’s the tail end of the season and you know what that means: Coaching Carousel Time! I’m a firm believer in giving a coach five years to prove his worth before even considering a change…at least I *was*, until I saw how quickly Paul Johnson and Brian Kelly turned their respective programs into top-10 squads. With an ever-increasing desire from fanbases to WIN NOW, is five years still “industry standard,” or can coaches legitimately be expected to show marked improvement in four years or less before finding a pink slip in their inbox? How bad would a situation have to be to fairly jettison a head coach before year five?

Nowadays each school is going to follow their own timetable as it pertains to their head coach. Coaches transitioning a program from I-AA to I-A like Randy Edsall at Uconn have a longer leash than say Rich Rodriguez at Michigan. In any case, I think five years to build a winner is the exception and not the rule.

4) Certainly the four-letter network likes to pimp the big rivalries–Ohio State Vs. Michigan, Texas Vs. Oklahoma, etc.–but I think the ACC has quite a few solid rivalries that never get the coverage they deserve. Where do you think your school’s rivalry rates in terms of passion, prestige and what’s at stake each season? What steps–beyond the obvious “win more”–could be taken to improve the visibility of your team’s rivalry matchup every year?

The Commonwealth Cup would become more than just a blip on the national radar if Virginia was more relevant and won the game once in a while. A rivalry loses its luster when one team continually shows up, gets slaughtered and is eaten up.

5) Few rivalries in the South have as much tradition, passion and generated as much heated discussion as a good ol’ fashioned barbecue debate. Here in North Carolina it’s Eastern versus Lexington style, and a good many shouting matches have arisen between folks east of I-95 and those godless heathens that put ketchup and brown sugar in their “dip.” No doubt similar verbal wars have been waged on behalf of your favorite barbecue, as well, so the question is this: In an all-out, Armageddon-type scenario where the righteous are separated from the unholy on the basis of what type of barbecue they bring to the judgment table, what style of barbecue are you bringing and who–among the purveyors of this style of ‘cue in your state–will you select to be your Champion?

Fuck barbecue, in Virginia we’re all about ham. But, if you’re putting a gun to my head, which if I read between the lines you are, I’m slow smoking  my meats over a combination of charcoal and maple chips slathered in my homemade (Sweet Baby Ray’s) honey barbecue sauce.