ACC Football Report shut its doors on Friday. Marcus' absence will be felt among those who eat, sleep and breathe ACC oblong. His departure deprives ACC football of one of its strongest proponents (and harshest critics) from the last three seasons. Combined with the closure of ACC Nation last season, we are bereft of a strong conference-wide independent blog.
Without Marcus, the ACC has to find a new voice in the blogosphere. There are a few options, but only one that can provide the same kind of coverage Marcus did. We need someone who can cover all 12 schools in a blog that's available to everyone and independent of mainstream media.
Here on SB Nation, Team Speed Kills covers SEC football and The Rivalry, Esq., covers Big Ten football. There isn't an ACC-wide independent blog, mainly because not many exist.
Today's ACC Headlines is the blog of record for the ACC. However, it doesn't provide much commentary. It's a great place to go if you want a quick run-down of what's going on in the conference. But it doesn't really comment on the issues the ACC is facing.
ACC Sports Journal has quality writers and great content. But a lot of that content isn't accessible without paying $6.99 per month or $69.00 per year. Sorry, Jim, but all my discretionary income goes to Hokie Club. And buying cinnamon rolls. Mmmmmm, cinnamon rolls. That and Jim feels the need to cover basketball during football season, which just makes me cringe. In Oklahoma we have three sports seasons: Football, Spring Football and Football Recruiting. The sooner ACC Sports Journal grasps this concept the better.
And, of course, there's Annette, even though she is tied to the four-letter network. Annette actually does a good job covering the ACC despite all the shit myself and others give her. She tries to give every team equal time, provides a daily link dump and has the ability to gallivant across the ACC to cover the teams. But she isn't really given a voice by ESPN. She tries to give commentary on the ACC, but it just doesn't seem like she has the space or the time to devote to opinion pieces. ACC Football News has a lot of content, but is tied to the mainstream media as well. Same with ACC Now.
Finally, we have a new option. On the B. Rink is a blog by Brandon Rink (get it?) that covers ACC football, basketball and baseball. But at least he covers the correct sport when it's in-season (and football season in the ACC should begin the second One Shining Moment ends and my local news starts, Jim). This blog has a lot of potential and Rink has already started to cover the issues facing the whole conference as well as the teams in it. Here's hoping he takes the torch from Marcus and carries it for the next few seasons.