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The ACC is literally a second-tier football conference.
There are several college football polls that come out each week, including the latest to join the fray, the College Football Playoff rankings.
The Athletic’s latest poll of all 134 major FBS teams has a top 12 very similar to the CFP’s top dozen of last week, except Miami has dropped to 14th after its first loss at Georgia Tech. SMU (8-1), one of the three new schools in the ACC, is at No. 12 and will likely reach the ACC Championship game on December 7th.
No. 14 Miami is favored to win its last two games against Wake Forest and Syracuse and face the Mustangs in Charlotte. Clemson, which already has two losses, still has to go to Pitt and play 19th-ranked South Carolina in the regular season finale. If the Tigers beat the Panthers and lose to the Gamecocks, they could still tie Miami for second place in the ACC with 7-1 records and likely lose a complicated tie-breaker.
But a true tale of the ACC’s overall mediocrity is that second-place Clemson’s losses to Georgia and Louisville leaves it at No. 24 in the latest overall poll, the ACC’s fourth highest team according to The Athletic (Louisville is 21).
Seven from the ACC reside in the next 25 – Pitt, Georgia Tech, Duke, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Boston College – which is basically the midsection of the rankings when you consider the last 34 teams are mostly mid-majors and six Power 4s with losing records such as the ACC’s 2-7 Stanford at No. 99 and 1-9 Florida State at No. 103 in The Athletic poll.
Carolina is No. 53 and only got that high by winning at Virginia and FSU. If the Tar Heels win their last three games against Wake Forest, BC, and NC state, they will finish 5-3 and maybe as high as third in the ACC and certainly climb into the nation’s top 50. Below UNC is Cal (5-4), State (5-5), Wake Forest (4-5).
According to the Athletic, the ACC and Big 12’s hopes of sending multiple teams to the first 12-team CFP took a big hit over the weekend. Besides Miami’s first loss in Atlanta, Iowa State was upset at 3-6 Kansas. Meanwhile, Ole Miss’ big win over Georgia (leaving both at 7-2) brought more SEC teams into the playoff mix, including 8-1 Tennessee and 7-2 Alabama.
The crowd of two-loss SEC teams, because of that conference’s power ranking, has a chance to knock out at-large hopefuls, such as currently No. 7 Indiana. The 10-0 Hoosiers are one of only three unbeaten Power schools (the others being Big Ten Oregon and Big 12 BYU), but they play 8-1 and second-ranked Ohio State next weekend for a spot in the conference championship game and could lose their playoff chance in overwhelming fashion.
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.
Do you see a path for the ACC to be a geographically compact conference? I think it is unfair to students to make them fly across the country to play teams that no one in North Carolina gives a hoot about. There must be some strategy to restore logic to the ACC. UNC and Duke, and Wake and the Wuffies are never going to compete with the play-for-pay SEC or Big ten. Why not just accept reality and go back to our geographic roots?
Please chant loudly.