Pat Narduzzi walked into ACC Media Days and came out with a quote that did him no favors.
The Pitt coach went on the record and declared the ACC better than the Big Ten, backing it up with the kind of confidence that sounds strong until the numbers show up. He said, “This conference is as good as any conference in the country,” and then doubled down: “I don’t care what you make and all that.
I don’t care about how many resources you have and all that baloney. Talk about different conferences and what they make… Coming from Michigan State, spent eight seasons there.
Coming to Pitt in 2015, I said it then, I said it now. After about two years in the league, this conference is better - it’s better than the Big Ten.
It’s got more skill… I’ve said that for years and I’m going to stick to my guns.”
There’s nothing unusual about a coach talking up his own league. That part is standard issue. The problem is that Narduzzi didn’t just praise the ACC - he tried to put it ahead of the Big Ten, and that’s where the math gets ugly.
He tried to support the argument by pointing to records against Big Ten and SEC teams, saying, “You look at our record,” Narduzzi said. “You look at our record in bowl games against the SEC and Big Ten.
You look at our record in the regular season. We don’t have a losing record; we have a winning record against those teams.”
That line doesn’t hold up very well, whether he means Pitt or the conference as a whole.
At Pitt, Narduzzi’s only win as head coach against the Big Ten came in 2016 against Penn State. Since then, he’s dropped six straight. Iowa beat him in 2015, Northwestern got him in 2016, and three more of the losses came against the Nittany Lions.
And if the “our” in his comments is supposed to mean the ACC, the picture gets worse. Last season, the ACC finished 2-4 against the Big Ten and went 1-2 in bowl games.
The season before that, it was 4-5 and 1-3. In the 2020s, the ACC is 15-23 against the Big Ten and 3-12 in bowl games.
The last time the ACC had a winning record against the Big Ten was 2016, and that was one of only three seasons since 2000 when the league finished above .500 in those matchups.
Nebraska, meanwhile, has at least handled ACC teams reasonably well lately. The Huskers are 2-1 in their last three games against the conference, including the Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College.
So if Narduzzi was looking for a conference fight, he picked the wrong side of the numbers.
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