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Tonight, UCLA will host Tennessee on the Labor Day night college football game on ABC. You remember the tradition, don't you? When the ACC expanded to a dozen teams and signed that new deal with Disney Inc., it had secured an annual spot in one of the most coveted time slots of the sports calendar year. Or so we assumed.

Then Wake Forest and Boston College dared infiltrate the power structure at the expense of Florida State and Miami, and suddenly, the ACC-ABC-Labor Day liaison was subject to annual review.

If the league hoped to renew its case for national relevance, it's not off to a great start in 2008.

The ACC went 2-4 against other FBS members over the season's long opening weekend and sustained the losses by an average score of 34-10. That, appropriately enough, was the scoreboard's verdict in ninth-ranked Clemson's wire-to-wire domination at the hands of Alabama in the Georgia Dome.

How ornery will the Upstate be after that one? Still convinced the Tigers' national championship season of 1981 should be approximated or duplicated annually, a clientele that has recently paid for another stadium upgrade won't be overflowing with patience. Clemson hasn't won as a Top-10 team since the No. 5 Tigers beat North Carolina on Oct. 21, 2000. That was coach Tommy Bowden's first season.

Virginia' 52-7 home loss to Southern California was the program's most lopsided defeat anywhere since a 58-10 loss at South Carolina in 1987 that occurred less than 18 hours after one of the Cavaliers died of cancer. The Trojans administered the most thorough whipping of the Cavs in Scott Stadium since Clemson pasted Virginia 55-0 in the 1984 season-opener.

Both of those UVa teams won bowl games. The current squad, thinned by various off-field screw-ups, is not expected to make such a charge.

Because of a schedule that includes Labor Day games, The Associated Press poll won't be released until Tuesday. When it is, might Wake Forest be the ACC's marquee representative?

The Tigers will take a serious tumble from No. 9 after their disaster, and 17th-rated Virginia Tech is likely to drop a few spots after losing to East Carolina. The Demon Deacons, who checked in at 23rd, more than upheld that distinction with a comfortable win at Baylor.

The AP has released more than 700 weekly surveys since the ACC's inception in 1953, and only five of them have had Wake as the highest rated ACC team. It happened three times in 2006 and twice in 1979.

What if the Deacs are the league's only representative? That would be a first.

The weekend wasn't all bad. Really.

None other than Wallace Wade Stadium was the place to be. At least it was once the lightning decided to go away.

"I had my laptop down there and I kept looking at the weather radar," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. "I knew it was going to be a while. I've become a pretty good weatherman after 32 years of coaching."

And so the Blue Devils waited 90 extra minutes for their new leader's era to start for real as the elements delayed the game with James Madison.

"It was kinda miserable," quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said.

Perhaps a slight exaggeration. Lewis and the Devils know misery, and in the end, this did not qualify. Their 31-7 victory over the Dukes captivated an impressive crowd and gave the constituency cause for smiles and hope.

Next up is Northwestern, the only FBS opponent Duke has beaten since Nov. 13, 2004. The Devils won in Evanston, Ill., last season, and they're above .500 for the first time since a win over Rice made them 2-1 on Sept. 13, 2003.

The Devils are a ways from national acclaim, but for now, they're better off than many of their brethren.

On an individual note, kudos to North Carolina's Brandon Tate, whose 397 all-purpose yards against McNeese State represented the seventh-highest total by any NCAA FBS player this decade.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com