College Football Preview Part XXIII- ACC

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Welcome Back!

Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 3 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, and Athlon), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


ACC


3-Year History


SMU 21-3/.875/1st

Clemson 19-5/.792/2nd

Louisville 16-8/.667/3rd

FSU 14-10/.583/4th

GT 14-10/.583/4th

Duke 14-10/.583/4th

NC St 13-11/.542/7th

UNC 13-11/.542/7th

Miami 12-12/.500/9th

Syra 11-13/.458/10th

Va Tech 10-13/.435/11th

Pitt 10-14/.417/12th

BC 9-15/.375/13th

WF 6-18/.333/14th

Cal 8-18/.308/15th

UVA 6-17/.261/16th

Stan 5-21/.192/17th


6-Year History


Clemson 41-8/.837/1st

SMU 35-12/.745/2nd

Miami 28-21/.571/3rd

Louisville 28-22/.560/4th

NC St 27-23/.540/5th

UNC 27-23/.540/5th

Pitt 26-24/.520/7th

FSU 24-24/.500/8th

Va Tech 24-25/.490/9th

GT 21-28/.429/10th

WF 20-27/.426/11th

UVA 20-28/.417/12th

BC 20-30/.400/13th

Duke 18-32/.360/14th

Cal 17-31/.354/15th

Syracuse 16-34/.320/16th

Stan 14-36/.280/17th


10-Year History


Clemson 71-10/.877/1st

Miami 49-32/.605/2nd

SMU 47-32/.595/3rd

Pitt 46-36/.561/4th

Louisville 44-38/.537/5th

NC St 44-38/.537/5th

Va Tech 43-38/.531/7th

FSU 41-39/.513/8th

UNC 42-40/.512/9th

Stan 41-45/.477/10th

GT 35-46/.432/11th

WF 31-48/.392/12th

UVA 31-49/.388/13th

BC 30-52/.366/14th

Cal 30-54/.357/15th

Duke 29-53/.354/16th

Syracuse 28-54/.341/17th


Predicted Finish:


  1. Clemson

  2. SMU

  3. Miami

  4. Louisville

  5. Georgia Tech

  6. Pittsburgh

  7. Duke

  8. FSU

  9. NC State 

  10. North Carolina

  11. Virginia Tech

  12. Syracuse

  13. Boston College

  14. Virginia

  15. California

  16. Wake Forest

  17. Stanford


Conference Champion: Clemson


Chances to make the playoff: Now that the CFP has expanded to 12 teams, an ACC champion will most likely never be left out again, especially an undefeated champion. The question is how many ACC teams will make it in? So much depends on how other teams in other conferences do, but I would think that in most years, at least 2 teams will make it in.

Don’t be surprised if… Georgia Tech finishes in the top 2 and makes the ACC Championship Game. The Yellow Jackets are a quality team that may very well go 10-2 or 11-1.

I’m not convinced… SMU will be able to repeat their success from last season. Like Indiana, I believe they’ll finish in the 5-8 range.


Make sure you come back tomorrow as I continue my previews!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!    

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