 Maryland and Duke had become national football powers and there weren't many schools in the conference that could regularly compete against them.In an effort to create a more balanced round-robin schedule and thus secure an automatic bid to the Orange Bowl, the top eight football schools from the conference—Maryland, Duke, UNC, Virginia, South Carolina, Clemson, Wake Forest, and NC State—left to form the Atlantic Coast Conference.NC State's first ACC contest was on the road against Wake Forest in December 1953.