This is a case where what's good for the league is not necessarily good for FSU.

FSU Coach Jimbo Fisher issued some not-so-thinly veiled comments about Charlotte as the venue of the title game, saying, in as many words, lets see what the weather looks like before we crown this the permanent home. Fisher indicated he prefered a dome.

Well, I have no doubt that if Atlanta weren't taken by the SEC title game, it would be the home of the ACC title game. But shy of some sort of scheduling tap dance, I don't see how that will ever change.

So, what about Charlotte?

Saturday's game will be a sellout or near sell-out in terms of the number of tickets actually sold. Right now, it's a buyer's market because all the N.C. State fans are trying to unload their tickets (expect lots of VT fans sprinkled in on the Atlantic division side Saturday night). So, I would expect there to be a good number of empty seats Saturday night. The weather will be quite chilly (40s during the game) which will also slightly suppress ACTUAL attendance, but I'm sure we'll still see at least 60,000 in attendance and perhaps 65k.

Of course, this will be more than enough for Charlotte-as-the-site proponents who will say -- "there wasn't even a Carolinas team in the game and we sold it out and had the stadium mostly full!"

And you know what, they would be right. While it would be much better for FSU to play the game in a) a weather-neutral cliamte b) closer to home .. .there is just no getting around the fact that Charlotte is located PERFECTLY in terms of geography. While temps in the 40s seem brutally cold to Floridians (and I used to be one), for most, it's just crisp football weather that will not deter most fans from attending a big game. The truth is, climatologically, EXTREMELY bad weather conditions are quite rare in early December (by that I mean, sub freezing temperatures before midnight or frozen precipitation).

This will also be a "win" for the Carolinas faction of the ACC which still resents the inclusion of FSU/Miami in the first place.

So -- and this may be stating the obvious -- look for Saturday night's game to be heralded as a grand success and for Charlotte to be named the permanent home of the ACC title game.

This could hurt FSU and even cost the Seminoles a league title or two over the years, but I believe it's the right thing for the ACC in the big picture.