If, after he hands out the trophy, the teams have long retreated to their respective locker room and the stadium staff is underway with their cleanup duties, John Swofford walks to the midfield logo of Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium and takes a good, long bow, we should all understand why.
Saturday night will be John Swofford's final ACC game as the league's commissioner, and what a farewell it will be.
No. 2 Notre Dame (Notre Dame!!!) vs. No. 3 Clemson. College football's biggest historical brand vs. the 1A or 1B selection of the sport's top program today. College GameDay on site that morning, ABC airing the game to a national audience that afternoon. A rematch of the most-watched game this season.
It's the culmination of everything Swofford has worked to accomplish since July 1, 1997, transforming a backwoods basketball conference into a multi-sport power that stretches up and down the East Coast and holds its own with the powers in the southeast and midwest.
And if the action on the field Saturday afternoon plays out the correct way, the ACC could scoop up two of the available four College Football Playoff berths, leaving their four Power 5 brethren scrambling for the remaining two. Depending on how the next month plays out, Notre Dame and Clemson could become the 12th and 13th ACC teams to finish in the AP Top 5 in Swofford's 24-season commissionership (including at least one in eight straight seasons), compared to nine in the 44 ACC seasons before he took over. If Notre Dame or Clemson close the deal in January, the number of ACC football titles in Swofford's 24 years (five) would exceed the 44 years before he took over (four)... and tower over every other football league beside the SEC.
Of course, a commissioner deserves a limited amount of credit for team success -- Bobby Bowden was in the middle of his Florida State dynasty when Swofford came to power -- but Saturday's game was directly shaped by Swofford's hand.
It was under Swofford's leadership that the ACC cannibalized the Big East, first taking Miami and Virginia Tech, then Boston College, then Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville. So hollowed was the Big East that Notre Dame started looking for a new home to place its Olympic sports... and there the ACC was.
Once the pandemic forced the major conferences to cancel their non-conference seasons, the ACC became a natural home for the Notre Dame. It took darn near 15 years of planning and a global pandemic to make it happen, but Swofford accomplished what many a conference commissioner, sports blogger and message board poster dreamed of one day happening -- he got Notre Dame to join a conference, his conference, if only temporarily.
Such a distance the ACC Championship has traveled from 2006, when No. 16 Wake Forest beat No. 23 Boston College 9-6 before a mostly-empty stadium in Jacksonville, to Saturday.
CFP No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 3 Clemson (The AP ranks Clemson at No. 4) will play the eighth Top 5 v. Top 5 conference championship game (the first for the ACC), the fourth of the Playoff era, and the most likely to produce two semifinalists. (Each of the previous three had at least one team at No. 4, and the lower-ranked team lost each time.)
The biggest ACC Championship ever is Swofford's perfect swan song.
Here's what's on the line elsewhere in college football.
AMERICAN
No. 23 Tulsa (6-1, 6-0 AAC) at No. 9 Cincinnati (8-0, 6-0 AAC) -- 8 p.m. ET, ABC
The Playoff dream is likely dead for Cincinnati, having dropped two spots while not playing the last two weeks. (Shoulda run up the score on Off Week, Bearcats.) But there's still plenty to play for here.
Cincinnati can win its second American championship, its first under Luke Fickell, and the 15th in program history. A win sends the Bearcats to the Peach Bowl, the third New Year's Six trip in program history.
Beyond that, Cincinnati is playing for the first undefeated season in program history. The closest Cincy has come (unless you count that magical 1-0 season of 1887) was in 2009, when Brian Kelly had the Bearcats at 12-0 before he left for Notre Dame and they then lost 51-24 to Florida in Tim Tebow's final game.
For Tulsa, there's probably too much hill to climb to reach the Peach Bowl, but the Hurricane can still win their 36th conference championship and first in the American.
BIG 12
No. 10 Oklahoma (7-2, 6-2 Big 12) vs. No. 6 Iowa State (8-2, 8-1 Big 12) -- noon ET, ABC
Well, here it is. In the 129th season of Iowa State football, the 1,251st Cyclone game, we've arrived at the biggest.
Iowa State claims two conference titles, won in 1911 and 1912 -- and, considering Iowa State won all of four games to claim the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles in those seasons, they barely count.
Iowa State has played one game previously as an AP Top 10 team against another AP Top 10 team. They lost that one 49-3. There's not a lot of historical precedent for where Matt Campbell and company find themselves, is what I'm saying. A win here hands them their first Big 12 trophy and sends them to the Cotton Bowl, at worst. And who knows? The selection committee clearly loves this team, so it's not outside the realm of possibility a convincing victory sees these Cyclones rise from No. 13, to No. 9, to No. 7, to No. 6, and finally to No. 4.
Oklahoma finds itself in the rare position of being the Big 12 Championship participant with less to play for. Not that winning a (deep breath) 50th conference championship, its 14th Big 12 title (in the Big 12's 25th season), and its sixth consecutive. Yawn.
In all seriousness, a win here and a win in the Cotton Bowl, and OU can say with a straight face the program is on its best footing since the early 2000s.
BIG TEN
No. 4 Ohio State (5-0) vs. No. 14 Northwestern (6-1) -- noon ET, Fox
Controversial as their path has been, Ohio State is in the Playoff with a victory here. In fact, the Buckeyes may even climb up to No. 3, depending on how the ACC game shakes out. The committee has held Ohio State steady at No. 4 from its first set of rankings this season, and there's no chance they drop after beating a top-15 opponent on a neutral field.
As for Northwestern, this is an opportunity to win Big Ten title No. 8 (Ohio State is gunning for No. 39) and the first under Pat Fitzgerald's leadership. A Rose Bowl trip -- Northwestern has only been twice -- is off the table, but the 'Cats will make their Fiesta Bowl debut with a victory.
CONFERENCE USA
UAB (5-3, 3-1 C-USA) at Marshall (7-1, 4-1 C-USA) -- 7 p.m. ET Friday, CBS Sports Network
The wackiest of the conference title games, Marshall had five games canceled and was undefeated and ranked in the Top 20 until the season's most inexplicable loss, a five-interception shutout to 1-2 Rice. And they're the normal ones here. UAB didn't play at all in the month of November and had to fend off Rice 21-16 last Saturday to win their way into this game.
But here they now are, and UAB can now in its second conference championship ever -- which would also be its second in three seasons, both of those coming after a self-imposed death penalty.
Marshall won seven conference titles from 1994-02, all of those in the SoCon or the MAC. This would be the Herd's second Conference USA crown.
INDEPENDENTS
Air Force (3-2) at Army (8-2) -- 3 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy will be in attendance at Michie Stadium, observing every play, awarding custody of itself to the winner.
Air Force once owned this trophy, first awarded in 1972. The Falcons won it 14 times between 1982 and 2002, including 13 times in the 14 seasons between 1989 and '02. They've won it just four times in the 18 years since, most recently in 2016.
Army won the first one back in '72, but only once between 1989 and 2016. A victory here keeps the CIC in West Point for the third time in four years (that's never happened before) and puts Jeff Monken's team on the doorstep of its third 10-win season in those four years.
All of that seemed impossible for a program that lost eight or more games 15 times from 1998 through 2015, including a 7-57 stretch from 2000-05.
MAC
Ball State (5-1) vs. Buffalo (5-0) -- 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Ball State hasn't won the MAC since 1996; they've only played in the MAC Championship (established in 1997) once before, in 2008.
Buffalo owns one MAC title -- a 42-24 win over Ball State in 2008. A 2018 loss to Northern Illinois stands as their only other trip to Detroit.
MOUNTAIN WEST
Boise State (5-1, 5-0 MW) vs. No. 24 San Jose State (6-0, 6-0 MW) -- 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox
A David and Goliath tail in Las Vegas, except it's David who's ranked. (Vegas likes Goliath by a touchdown.)
Boise State joined FBS in 1999. In the 21 seasons since, the Broncos have won their conference twice as often (14 times) than not (seven). A win here gives Bryan Harsin's team back-to-back Mountain West crowns for the first time ever, though.
San Jose State hasn't won their conference since 1991, and hasn't won a league title outright since 1990. That was two conferences ago. The Spartans did 17 years in the WAC without ever winning it -- Boise won it eight times -- and they're now looking for their first Mountain West title in their eighth year in the league.
And if that's not enough, San Jose State has never beaten Boise State in 14 tries. They've come within 10 points once, a 23-20 loss in 2006.
Start gathering those rocks, David.
Pac-12
Oregon (3-2) at No. 13 USC (5-0) -- 8 p.m. ET Friday, Fox
No matter what the history books tell you, this is the hottest rivalry in the Pac-12.
It's the conference's old money vs. new money series; USC has 39 conference titles, but only one since 2008. Oregon didn't win anything for their first 30 years of Pac-12 life, but a win in the Coliseum gives them six conference titles in 12 years.
Similarly, USC holds a 38-21-2 lead in the all-time series, but Oregon is 10-6 against the Trojans since 1994 and 5-2 since 2009.
SEC
No. 1 Alabama (10-0) vs. No. 7 Florida (8-2) -- 8 p.m. ET, CBS
In the 29th SEC Championship, it's the 10th Alabama-Florida matchup. Alabama owns a 5-4 edge, having won four straight. They're the odds-on favorite to make it five straight.
Remarkably, this is the 15th straight SEC Championship with national title implications on the line.
Those implications are a little more real for one side than the other, though with Florida dropping only to No. 7 following that god-awful loss to LSU last week, are we sure the Gators can't rise three spots with a win over the No. 1 team in the country?
In addition to their march for SEC title No. 28, Playoff berth No. 6 and (claimed) national title No. 18, Alabama plays for immortality on Saturday night. They'll be the first, only and last SEC team to ever go 11-0 against all-SEC competition.
Sun Belt
No. 19 Louisiana (9-1, 7-1 Sun Belt) at No. 12 Coastal Carolina (11-0, 8-0 Sun Belt) -- 3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
The third Sun Belt Championship is, unequivocally, the biggest.
If Cincinnati stumbles in the American championship, the next-best option for the Peach Bowl is right here. ULL owns two Sun Belt co-championships and two title game losses (both to App State); Coastal has never won it (they only joined the league in 2016).
So this is a big game for both schools, and it's also a big game for the league itself.
The Sun Belt has outright passed regional rival Conference USA, a tasty holiday treat for a league that was once picked over by C-USA. It's better than the MAC, and sees nothing to fear in the Mountain West. The same BYU team that Coastal memorably beat a couple weeks ago trounced MW finalist Boise State 51-17 on the blue turf in November. And, lest we forget, Louisiana humbled Big 12 finalist Iowa State on their own field, 31-14 back in September.
The Sun Belt will always be a stepping-stone league to the SEC and the ACC but, for the time being, it looks like both coaches in Saturday's title tilt will stick around at least one more year.
This is a #Moment for the Sun Belt, here in the league's 20th season,