Monday night's national championship game, between Louisiana State of the Southeastern Conference and Ohio State of the Big Ten, will mark the seventh consecutive season in which college football's title contest will be played without an ACC participant.

That's a painful reality for the 55-year-old ACC, a proud conference whose controversial expansion of 2004-05 was rooted mainly in two things: money and football.

“What we haven’t had (in football) is a team in the national championship game," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "That helps perception more than anything else.”

On the basketball side, in contrast, the ACC has produced three of the past seven national champions — Duke in 2001, Maryland in 2002, and North Carolina in 2005 — while also maintaining its reputation as the world's greatest producer of talent for the NBA. Whatever the long-term measuring stick, ACC basketball still stands atop the college mountain.

ACC football, on the other hand, continues to offer a mixed bag. The conference has improved dramatically on the gridiron in some categories — after expansion, for example, it essentially doubled the value of its television contract and set some all-time records for NFL draft choices — but it hasn't yet made similar improvements in the most important area: winning on the field.

Consider these ugly facts:

* The ACC hasn't captured a national championship in football since 1999, when Florida State won. Its only previous titles were in 1993 (FSU), 1990 (Georgia Tech co-title) and 1981 (Clemson).

* The ACC hasn't had a team in the national championship game since 2000, when FSU lost to Oklahoma.

* With Virginia Tech's 24-21 loss to Kansas in this year's Orange Bowl, the ACC's all-time record in the Bowl Championship Series dropped to 1-9. That's the worst record, by far, among the six leagues — the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC — that created the BCS.

* The ACC and the Big East are the only major conferences that have never had an at-large team (someone beyond the automatic bid that goes to the league champion) selected for a BCS bowl.

* Since 2000, and pending this year's final poll, the only ACC team to finish in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll is Virginia Tech. The Hokies did it in 2004 and 2005.

* During the 2006 regular season, the ACC went 4-12 against the rest of the BCS, plus Notre Dame. That was by far the worst mark among the six major conferences. The ACC's head-to-head BCS record improved to 11-11 this year.

* During the 2007 postseason, the ACC finished 2-6 in bowl games — by far the worst performance among the six major conferences. The league's only winners, Boston College (Champs Sports over Michigan State) and Wake Forest (Meineke over Connecticut), played in minor bowls against unranked opponents.

Those are some ugly numbers.

They'll have to improve dramatically if the ACC is ever going to succeed in its on-going efforts to elevate its football reputation to a level anywhere near its basketball reputation.

ACC In Bowl Games

Orange: Kansas 24, Virginia Tech 21

Chick-fil-A: Auburn 23, Clemson 20, OT

Gator: Texas Tech 31, Virginia 28

Champs Sports: Boston College 24, Michigan State 21

Music City: Kentucky 35, Florida State 28

Meineke: Wake Forest 24, Connecticut 10

Emerald: Oregon State 21, Maryland 14

Humanitarian: Fresno State 40, Georgia Tech 28