Pat Narduzzi went to ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte and came out swinging for his league. The Pitt coach didn’t just praise the conference - he pushed the argument all the way to claiming the ACC is “better than the Big Ten” and has “more skill.”
He also doubled down on the idea that the ACC isn’t sitting on losing records against the Big Ten or SEC in bowls or the regular season.
“We don’t have losing records” vs. the Big Ten or SEC in bowls nor the regular season.
That’s where the trouble starts, because the numbers in the source tell a very different story.
Start with Narduzzi’s own track record against the Big Ten at Pitt. According to Winsipedia, Pitt has never beaten Michigan State in eight meetings.
The Spartans are 7-0-1 in the series. The source notes that Narduzzi would point to the Peach Bowl as the one game he lost to Michigan State because Kenny Pickett sat out, and Kenneth Walker III also sat out while the Spartans won by 10.
His broader record against Big Ten teams since taking over at Pitt in 2015 is rough as well. The source says he is 1-6 all-time against the conference, and even with a generous adjustment that adds a win over UCLA in the 2022 Sun Bowl - two years before the Bruins joined the Big Ten - that only gets him to 2-6.
The conference-wide claim doesn’t hold up either. The source says Yahoo!
checked the numbers after Narduzzi’s comments and found the Big Ten is 41-30 against the ACC since 2015. The SEC has also handled the ACC in that same stretch, going 70-52.
So while Narduzzi was clearly trying to defend his league, the facts in the source undercut the whole argument. Coaches can sell confidence all day, but this one was easy to challenge. The source closes by saying Narduzzi is fortunate Michigan State fans still remember his defenses in East Lansing, even if his ACC comments were, in its words, “horrendous.”
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