The Atlantic Coast Conference carries the stigma of winning just one College World Series—in 1955 by Wake Forest. That pales noticeably when compared to the Pacific-10 Conference, with 23, and even the Southeastern Conference, with six (but all since 1992).

Yet by almost any other standard, the ACC has established itself as one of the legitimate power conferences in college baseball—along with the Pac-10 and SEC, and the Big 12 Conference.

Between them, the four conferences have combined to send 59 of 80 teams to the College World Series over the last 10 years—with the ACC and SEC contributing 17 apiece. In PG Crosschecker’s ranking of the nation’s top 100 college teams prior to the 2009 season, 41 of the 44 teams in the four conferences were ranked. Every school but Maryland represented the 12-team ACC.

Moreover, the four power conferences have produced more than their share of draftable talent. In last year’s draft, they yielded 17 first-round picks—including five by the ACC. Among the first 250 players drafted, 21 came from the Pac-10, 20 each from the ACC and SEC, and 11 from the Big 12.

In PG Crosschecker’s ranking of the top 250 prospects for the 2009 draft class, the Pac-10 leads with 22 players, followed by the SEC with 21, the Big 12 with 20 and the ACC with 18. In our ranking of the top 250 in the 2010 class, the SEC leads with 23 players, followed by the ACC at 16, Pac-10 at 15 and Big 12 at 14.

The ACC is the first of the four power conferences to kick off its 2009 conference schedule, with games scheduled this weekend at six sites. The conference appears most ready for head-to-head competition with easily the best cumulative non-conference among its member schools. Though it’s not a truly accurate measuring stick, ACC teams went a combined 80-20 in non-conference games leading up to conference play. In the same two-week period, the SEC is 58-23, the Big 12 is 65-28 and the Pac-10 a modest 42-40.

Beginning with the ACC, we’ll take a close-up look at the top 10 prospects in each of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 draft classes, in each of the four power conferences. We’ll break down the SEC, Pac-10 and Big 12 as those conferences embark on their conference schedules over the next couple of weeks.