Let us stipulate, for the sake of argument, that Cullen Harper is a household name in Alpharetta, Ga., and Pickens County, S.C. He had some yearbook-worthy moments during his playing days at Sequoyah High. He's the starting quarterback for Clemson, where he waited his turn for three years and had a nice junior season. He's maybe the poster boy for ACC football 2008.

And he's barely a blip on the national radar.

This is the problem with ACC football and a major reason its product hasn't struck gold on the field or resonated in discussions across the country: lack of star power. Tim Tebows, Pat Whites and Chase Daniels frolic elsewhere in college stadiums. The ACC, for all its expansion-generated muscle-flexing, lags behind. And it shows.

On the field, the ACC hasn't won a major bowl since the 1999 campaign and went 2-6 during the 2007 postseason. It's also 39-50 against BCS-conference opponents and 3-9 in its three highest-tier bowls -- BCS, Gator, Peach -- since growing from nine teams to 12 over the past four years.

Meanwhile, in a ballroom at a posh Georgia resort this week, the ACC positioned 24 players at a dozen tables for group interviews at its Football Kickoff. Of the 12 who call offense home, there were three quarterbacks and two wideouts -- none of whom looms as an All-America threat -- and not a single running back.

And don't think those two elements -- dreary returns and skill-position voids -- aren't intertwined.

Coaches, for their part, will tell you offense sells tickets but defense wins championships.

But don't let them kid you.

And don't kid yourselves.

Eyeballed the college game lately? Noticed those fourand five-wideout sets? Watched Urban Meyer and Les Miles zip their way to national championships the past two years? Gotten an appreciation -- as Al Groh surely has -- for Mike Leach's zing-it-around schemes at Texas Tech?

Yeah, you've got to stop the other guys. And double-yeah, it's always comforting to have a Chris Long to terrorize rival quarterbacks or a Xavier Adibi to chase down runners. LSU doesn't win the title last year without Glenn Dorsey and the defense he anchored.

But the college game tilts toward offense these days. To use basketball language with which the ACC is more familiar, you better be able to score the ball if you want to send your fans home happy and somewhere inviting to spend the holidays.

Compare the wannabe ACC with the ruling-class SEC. Over the past four NFL drafts -- since expansion -- the ACC has had 30 players picked in the first round. Of that total, there have been two quarterbacks (Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan), one wide receiver (Calvin Johnson) and no running backs.

Now check out the SEC. During that same span of time, it's churned out 31 first-rounders -- barely a shred of difference. But its group includes three quarterbacks, five running backs and five wideouts -- the sorts of players, in other words, who are difference-makers. A Joseph Addai here. A Jason Campbell there. Darren McFaddens everywhere.

That's the SEC advantage and the ACC void, one that's historic -- four first-round QBs total since 1962, for example -- and now is exaggerated by the tailspins at former glam-position manufacturers Florida State and Miami.

"I couldn't be any more pleased with expansion," ACC boss John Swofford told reporters Tuesday. "There isn't any question that we're deeper and stronger than we've ever been"

In the cash register? Yeah, I suppose.

On the field? On stadium marquees? On Lee Corso's star search? None of the above.
Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or blipper@timesdispatch.com