Note that in 2009, it was the ACC Championship Game that featured two of the league's top three offenses piling up 73 points and 883 yards of total offense while the best defenses in the high-flying Big 12 beat each other to a pulp in a 13-12 clinch-fest.

But that was characteristic of a conference that opened with a 38-34 thriller in its marquee rivalry, setting the tone for the entire season. The No. 1 offense ran for 300-plus yards in wins over both the first and second-ranked defenses. Georgia Tech and Florida State traded blows a in a lightning-streaked, 93-point, 1071-yard shootout that ended with a single punt by either team. At one point, Wake Forest's Riley Skinner, who entered the year with zero 300-yard passing games in three full seasons as a starter, passed for at least 350 three weeks in a row. Duke's Thaddeus Lewis went over 300 (usually well over 300) in six of the Blue Devils' last eight games, joining Philip Rivers as the only ACC quarterbacks ever to pass for 10,000 yards in a career.