When it comes to speculation about conference realignment and rumors about teams leaving the ACC, you can't emphasize enough the importance of academics to the ACC.

The folks in Greensboro love it. The university presidents love it. And they really are good at it -- and I'm not just talking about Duke.

Miami, Clemson and -- well, ok, Duke -- each earned a public recognition award from the NCAA for their most recent multi-year Academic Progress Rate. The NCAA recognizes teams with APRs in the top 10 percent in each sport. For the ACC to have three schools earn this distinction in football is impressive: Of the 954 teams that made the list, only seven competed in BCS conferences last fall (Northwestern and Ohio State, Duke, Miami and Clemson, Rutgers, and Vanderbilt).

Notice the Big 12 is missing? A few ACC presidents probably did, too.