Clemson's 40-24 win over Florida State means the Tigers have to beat N.C. State, in Raleigh, and Virginia, at home, to win the Atlantic Division.

That's it and not even Tommy Bowden could screw that up (or only Tommy Bowden could screw that up).

Even if the spirit of Bowden possesses the Tigers, 4-2 in the ACC, and they lose once, they would still hold the tiebreaker over Boston College (3-2), which finishes with Virginia, UNC and Maryland.

N.C. State’s players hadn’t won in so long that they forgot how to react when they did.

Russell Wilson threw for three touchdowns and ran for another Saturday afternoon as the Wolfpack broke a four-game losing streak with a 38-31 defeat of Maryland at Carter-Finley Stadium.

N.C. State finally has its long-awaited, first ACC win.

Quarterback Russell Wilson passed for three touchdowns, ran for another and survived a three-interception game as the Wolfpack defeated Maryland 38-31 on Saturday afternoon at Carter-Finley Stadium.

For the second time in three days, North Carolina women's soccer beat Maryland.

There was more riding this time on chilly night at WakeMed Soccer Park, where the Tar Heels won 3-0 in the final of four first round games in the ACC Women's Soccer Championship.

GREENSBORO -- Maryland coach Gary Williams said this year's basketball team should take advantage of the experience gained last season.

Williams, whose team advanced to the NCAA Tournament, said his players - 6-foot-7 senior Landon Milbourne and 6-foot-2 junior Adrian Bowie among them - had special moments in games but lacked consistency.

GREENSBORO - ACC coaches reacted to the new NCAA point of emphasis rule on excessive celebration at conference's Operation basketball media meeting on Sunday.

Some questioned how the rule would be enforced. Some questioned the considerations made in defining the new points of emphasis.

Deep thoughts to ponder while you try to forget about the two winless teams in the ACC:

Georgia Tech @ Virginia, noon

Circled this game in July as a loss for Georgia Tech. The 3-4's a problem for the option and Virginia inexplicably has a Boise-like home-field advantage, minus the weird turf.

But Virginia running back Mikell Simpson is not healthy and without him, UVa won't score enough points to beat a hot, yet weary, GT team.

Pick: GT

Staff video by Travis Long, J.P. Giglio and Caulton Tudor

Topic: What to make of the bizarro Atlantic Division.

• Late Hits archive

Boston College: First team to five wins the Atlantic Division and the Eagles (2-1 in the ACC), against all football logic, with a Carl Torbush clone at coach and Crash Davis at quarterback, are one step ahead of everyone else.

Maryland: True genius by the Fridge, laying down against Cal, Rutgers and even Middle Tennessee, to throw the rest of the ACC off the scent. Nice touch, too, giving up 118 points in those three losses.

Maryland gets to ACC play and, voila!, defense is served. Clemson's offense is only good for 15 points. (Note: That's what happens, Clempson, when you promote the gym teacher.)

Wake Forest: "Air" Grobe beats N.C. State at its own game, with a pair of Triangle recruits no less, and gets the Deacs back in business in the Atlantic. Kudos to Wake's Josh Bush, who'll go down in trivia history as the one who ended Russell Wilson's interception-less streak at 379 attempts.

ACC bashing: The meek inherited the Earth, with four of the five conference games won by the underdog, but that's not a reason to bag on the ACC (not this week anyway).

Miami beat Oklahoma on Saturday. Oklahoma, from the Big 12, played for the national title last year and opened the season at No. 3. No one judges the Big 12 based on Iowa State, so why is the ACC being judged by Maryland, Virginia or Duke?

Miami's win over a top 10 team is the bikini portion of the Miss USA pageant, the rest is just filler music.

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Think global, win local

The five major Division I programs in the state of North Carolina have taken the ecological footprint concept to heart.

North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Duke and East Carolina have combined for eight wins over what the NCAA, for marketing purposes, calls "Bowl Subdivision" opponents.

Take out Wake's eco-friendly win over State and UNC's win over ECU and the Old North State Illuminati is a combined 6-8 against what normal football fans call Division I-A opponents.

The group's six out-of-state wins are at the expense of the awe-inspiring collection of Pitt, UConn, Stanford, Army, Marshall and Central Florida.

The good news is the in-state group gets four more games against each other.

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Coachspeak-to-English translation

"Four weeks in a row you get into the same situation, and the first one doesn't turn out right, turn out the way you want it, and now three weeks in a row they've come up."

— Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis after his team's fourth straight dramatic finish, a 37-30 overtime win over Washington.

Translation: If the alumni's going to give up on me, I need NBC in my corner.

The stats kept by the ACC and NCAA don't make any attempt to differentiate the level of competition. A game against Murray State counts the same as Alabama.

You can see the flaw in that book-keeping. With all due respect to Richmond, William and Mary, the CAA at-large and the powers of the Southern Conference, a statistical database that only included Division I-A teams against Division I-A teams would give a more accurate portrayal of a team's strengths and weaknesses. (Yes, I know Army and Alabama aren't equal either but at least we're comparing widgets to
widgets.)