ACC is the place to be, but what about SMU?

As my co-blogger Jarrett pointed out earlier this week, competition in the ACC is "hotting" up and is certainly the best college soccer conference in the US. College Soccer News has the ACC occupying six of the top ten slots in their national poll from last week. However, all the competition is getting to the ACC clubs and they're beating up on each other enough that their records are starting to smart. #6 Wake Forest beat #5 Clemson this week. #2 Maryland beat #9 Duke last Friday. #3 North Carolina's two losses have come in the conference. The ACC can't sport a #1 because no one in the conference remains undefeated.

All this conference battling has opened the #1 ranking to SMU. SMU isn't playing anyone in the ACC this season and won't until the NCAA tournament later this fall. Is this giving SMU a false sense of supremacy? So far this season they have played some good teams in #13 Indiana, #16 Cal, #24 Wisconsin, #25 Cincinnati and beating unranked Saint Louis on the road is no easy task. However, if the best teams and players are out east I don't think we'll know how good SMU really is until they beat up on an ACC opponent. At this point all roads to the College Cup run through ACC territory.

If you want to catch some of the ACC action live, tune into FSC this Friday night for a great battle between #2 Maryland and #3 UNC. There are plenty of MLS hopefulls in this one. Keep your eyes on:
F - Corey Ashe - Sr - UNC
FB - Michael Harrington - Sr - UNC
GK - Justin Hughes - Sr - UNC
M - Stephen King - Jr - Maryland
GK - Chris Seitz - So - Maryland

There are a few Freshman playing for Maryland who you won't want to miss including Jeremy Hall & Omar Gonzalez. Check it out!