RALEIGH -- N.C. State ended Wednesday alone in last place in the ACC and in search of answers.

Virginia Tech embarrassed the Wolfpack, from start to finish, for an easy 72-52 win to drop the Pack to 2-8 in the conference.

The ACC released the football schedule today with UNC-LSU and Virginia Tech-Boise State headlining the opening Labor Day weekend.

Thursday, Sept. 2
Florida A&M at Miami
Presbyterian at Wake Forest

Joe Uchebo, a sophomore big man who committed early to N.C. State, made a big impression on veteran All-Star Sports talent evaluator Bob Gibbons on Monday.

Uchebo played for Oak Ridge Academy at the MLK Classic at the Greensboro Coliseum. Gibbons said Uchebo is closer to 6-foot-10 than his listed height, which is 7 feet.

But Uchebo's ability impressed Gibbons.

The 2009 football season couldn't end soon enough for the ACC.

Just when it appeared the ACC was making a move toward respectability, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State lost to their in-state, SEC rivals on Nov. 28, the final weekend of the regular season.

On paper, Boston College against USC looks like the only sure loss of the ACC's seven bowl games. The ACC should win no less than four of its other six matchups, if not all of them.

But 90 percent of bowl winners are determined by which team wants to be there. Clemson and UNC would qualify as the conspicuous ACC teams that are not ecstatic with their bowl fate.

• 2008 list

The ACC's the best way to get the NBA.

The conference's 54 former players in the NBA are the most among the six major college basketball conferences with Duke (14) leading the list.

The Chick-fil-A will wait to make its selection until after the ACC championship game, bowl president Gary Stokan said Thursday.

Virginia Tech's widely speculated to be the ACC representative for the New Year's Eve game in Atlanta but Stokan said he's not going to make a final decision until after Clemson and Georgia Tech meet on Saturday night.

Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson has become the third football coach in ACC history to win conference coach of the year honors in his first two seasons in the league, ACC officials announced Tuesday.

Virginia Tech redshirt freshman running back Ryan Williams and Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly were named the ACC rookies of the year on offense and defense, respectively.

UNC placed four players on the first-team All-ACC defense while Duke and N.C. State placed one player each on the first-team offense.

Defensive end Richard Quinn, linebacker Quan Sturdivant, cornerback Kendric Burney and safety Deunta Williams made first-team for the Tar Heels, which led the ACC in total and scoring defense.

The outcome of the Georgia Tech-Clemson ACC title game will affect the first four bowl tie-ins for the ACC but not likely the last three.

North Carolina (Music City), Florida State (Meineke) and Boston College (Emerald) are tracking towards the last three tie-ins.