5 Worst ACC Traditions

By: Roy Philpott

Let's be honest, the ACC has several traditions that are as good as you'll find in college football.

There is Clemson's Running Down the Hill. There is Florida State and Chief Osceola.
There is the Ramblin Wreck that literally was wrecked earlier this year. Virginia Tech's Enter Sandman entrance isn't too bad.

But there's also some bad ones. Really ones. For instance do you really fear that stupid turtle in College Park, Md.? What about piping in crowd noise for some of the smaller stadiums in the league? Is that even legal?

Of course, we here at CUTigers.com are ready to rank those "bad ones" in another edition of our preseason blog:

#5. DUKE'S LACK OF ATTENDANCE POLICY
- Wallace-Wade Stadium is anything but intimidating, but the lack of interest in Duke football makes a Saturday trip to Durham downright boring. In the grand scheme of things, this should go down as the worst tradition in the ACC, but so few people care, it comes in No. 5 on our list. By the way, Duke ranked 91st in the country in football attendance last season, averaging just over 19,000 fans per game. Poor Ted Roof.

#4. THE WOLF SYMBOL FROM N.C. STATE FANS
- How can a grown man feel comfortable touching his thumb to his two middle fingers while extending his outer two fingers straight up in the air to show support for his school? Here's a thought: he shouldn't. Yeah, N.C. State fans, we get it. It's supposed to look like a wolf. Great. The problem is you look like a 5-year old every single time you do it. Honestly, look in the mirror and try to tell yourself it's cool to make the little wolfie symbol with your hand. How awful.

3. FLORIDA STATE BAND PLAYING THE OPPOSITION'S FIGHT SONG
- Imagine yourself in the sweltering heat of Doak Campbell Stadium on a late September afternoon. Right before Florida State enters the field via one of the best entrances in all of college football, led by Chief Osceola and his flaming spear of death, the FSU Marching Chiefs have the decency to play your own team's fight song instead of their own. This isn't tiddlywinks. It's college football! Play your own damn song and get off the field.

#2.BOSTON COLLEGE PUMPING IN A RHYTHMIC BEAT THROUGHOUT THE STADIUM
- Chances are most fans reading this haven't made the trip to Chestnut Hill, Mass. just yet. That's okay. However, if you are one of the few that's travelled the 1,000 miles north then you immediately know what I'm talking about and need no further explanation. For starters, know that Alumi Stadium, which is tucked away approximately 15-20 miles away from downtown Boston, seats only 44,500 people. So, to create the illusion of more noise from such a small crowd, some genius decided it would be cool to play an uptempo drum beat through every loudspeaker in facility the ENTIRE GAME. It's not annoying, it's way beyond that. If anything it's sad because the fans in Boston just don't care enough about B.C. to get into the game without the aid of such nonsense.

#1. FEAR THE TURTLE
Say what? Fear what? A turtle? The same creature that tucks its head away in its protective shell when provoked? It's a bad slogan to begin with, but having the football team rub a statue of a turtle as they emerge from the locker room at Chevy Chase Credit Card Bank of America Loan Payoff Stadium before kickoff is even worse. And no, they don't touch the shell of the turtle, they touch the very top of the nose. Oh and by the way, this has nothing to do with the fact Maryland has the worst fans in the league. Nothing.