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Will the ACC be a conference that eats its own?
Weeks Zero and One of the 2024 football season had some surprises, forcing prognosticators already to shuffle their picks, all moving toward the middle. Sounds a little like politics, huh?
Florida State, the runaway choice to repeat as ACC champion, had two league games to start and, shockingly, lost them both. To say the natives are restless in Tallahassee is an ultra-understatement.
Georgia Tech had a little more Irish in Dublin when it beat the Seminoles on a walk-off field goal. But FSU would be ready for its Monday night visit from Boston College, right? Wrong, and it wasn’t even close.
Meanwhile, Clemson was annihilated by top-ranked Georgia in Atlanta, which is almost equidistant from both schools. So what does the ACC think about its top two teams looking more mortal?
Some other non-conference games speak to balance as the Yellow Jackets and Eagles are tied for first place in the ACC standings while 0-2 FSU languishes in last.
Most were one-sided mismatches, but two more Power 4 contests show something about the ACC side of the ledger. Carolina hanging on to win at Minnesota says more about the Tar Heels’ gumption than game. And Virginia Tech losing at Vanderbilt says the Hokies are not as good as advertised and the perennial SEC doormat Commodores might be better than we think.
Miami has been installed as the unofficial new ACC favorite after going into the Swamp and drowning Florida, a program coming off consecutive losing seasons. The Hurricanes’ new quarterback Cam Ward appears worthy of his preseason ACC Player of the Year pick.
Stanford, remember, is new to the conference and lost by a touchdown at home to TCU, which has a strong program. Fellow newbies SMU and Cal were among the rest of the ACC to post easy non-conference wins.
We may learn more from Friday night games in Week 2 as SMU hosts BYU and Duke travels to Northwestern. On Saturday, there are a few better barometer battles like Pitt at Cincinnati, Cal at Auburn, and N.C. State vs. Tennessee in Charlotte.
There are also the third and fourth ACC matchups to track with Georgia Tech at Syracuse and Virginia at Wake Forest.
Next week, strangely, has no league games but a few more Power 4s to check out: BC is at Missouri, Pitt is home to border rival West Virginia, Wake Forest hosts Ole Miss and Virginia welcomes long-ago ACC rival Maryland, now in the Big Ten.
Today, all ACC teams – except Florida State – have the right to believe they can compete for the coveted top two spots in the standings, even Clemson, which has an early week off to get ready for its ACC opener against State in Death Valley.
Featured image via Associated Press/Karl B. DeBlaker
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
