According to Sargarin end of the year rankings. There have been 6 times since between 2000 and 2012 that the ACC has been ranked 3rd or higher in conference rankings. I stopped at 2012 because Sargarin started breaking his rankings down into divisions. Twice in that span the ACC was ranked the #1 conference (2003,2004) and it was ranked 2nd in 2005(Big 10 was #1).
Not true according to what I read:
'00-ACC-6, '01-ACC-4, '02-ACC-4, '03-ACC-1, '04-ACC-1, '05-ACC-2, '06-ACC-4, '07-ACC-5, '08-ACC-3, '09-ACC-4, '10-ACC-4, '11-ACC-7.
ACC Finished 3rd or higher 4 times (not 6 you claimed) and 2 times hit #1:
'03-#1, '04-#1, '05-#2 and '08-#3
***8 times it was ranked in the bottom half at 4 or worse..***
SEC finished 3rd or higher 9 times and 5 times hit #1:
'01-#1, '02-#3, '03-#2, '06-#1, '07-1, '08-#1, '09-#1, '10-#2, '11-#2