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CLEMSON --- Given that Clemson fans themselves have spent years wondering when the gap will close between their team and the rest of the ACC, there's some cruel irony to this year's revelation of that finally happening.

Oh, the gap has closed all right. It's just that Clemson has been the party most responsible for closing it by falling not just back but also behind other teams that are suddenly more fit contenders for the conference championship.

Maybe it's not fair to those other teams to place more weight on Clemson's plummet than on the refreshing rise of Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State.

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But while there is still much left to be determined in the race for a conference championship, the fact is the ACC is already out of the running for a national championship. For the first time in the playoff era, the conference will not have a team in the CFP field.

So in many ways this feels like a return to an era we thought we'd never see again. In 2006, Wake Forest advanced to the ACC title game and won the thing. In 2007 and 2008, Boston College was the Atlantic Division's representative in the championship game. And the ACC kingpin of those days, Virginia Tech, was never in serious contention for the national title.