2026 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. Also, the formula for my predictions here is different than for my Power Rankings. In other words, for a particular conference, one team may appear higher than another team here, but be ranked behind that same team in the PR.

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 last year), 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 4 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, and Sporting News), 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 22-3/.917/1st

Louisville 16-8/.667/2nd

Georgia Tech 16-8/.667/2nd

Clemson 15-9/.625/4th

Duke 15-9/.625/4th

Miami 15-9/.625/4th

NC State 13-11/.542/7th

FSU 12-12/.500/8th

Virginia 12-12/.500/8th

Virginia Tech 11-13/.458/10th

Pittsburgh 11-13/.458/10th

California 10-15/.400/12th

North Carolina 9-15/.375/13th

Syracuse 8-16/.333/14th

Boston College 8-16/.333/14th

Wake Forest 7-17/.292/16th

Stanford 7-18/.280/17th


6-Year History


Clemson 37-12/.755/1st

SMU 35-12/.745/2nd

Miami 30-19/.612/3rd

NC St 30-20/.600/4th

Pitt 28-22/.560/5th

Louisville 27-23/.540/6th

GT 25-24/.510/7th

UNC 25-25/.500/8th

FSU 23-25/.479/9th

UVA 21-27/.438/10th

Va Tech 21-28/.429/11th

WF 20-27/.426/12th

Duke 21-29/.420/13th

Cal 17-30/.362/14th

BC 17-33/.340/15th

Syracuse 15-35/.300/16th

Stan 14-35/.286/17th


10-Year History


Clemson 67-14/.827/1st

SMU 52-27/.658/2nd

Miami 50-31/.617/3rd

Pitt 46-36/.561/4th

NC St 45-37/.549/5th

Louisville 43-39/.524/6th

Va Tech 41-40/.506/7th

GT 40-41/.494/8th

FSU 38-42/.475/9th

UNC 36-46/.439/10th

UVA 35-45/.438/11th

WF 34-45/.430/12th

Stan 36-49/.424/13th

BC 31-51/.378/14th

Duke 31-51/.378/14th

Cal 30-53/.361/16th

Syracuse 27-55/.329/17th


Predicted Finish:


  1. Miami

  2. SMU

  3. Louisville

  4. Clemson

  5. Virginia

  6. Pittsburgh

  7. Georgia Tech

  8. Virginia Tech

  9. NC State 

  10. FSU

  11. Duke

  12. Wake Forest

  13. California

  14. North Carolina

  15. Syracuse

  16. Stanford

  17. Boston College


Conference Champion: Miami


Chances to make the playoff: Guaranteed, now that the rules have been changed to allow all P4 champions to be included. The question is how many ACC teams can make it into the CFP. SMU and Louisville seem like the most likely chances for an at-large berth.


Don’t be surprised if… one of Wake Forest, NC State, or Virginia sneak into the top 4, and maybe even into the top 2, but all should finish in the top 8.


I’m not convinced… North Carolina will finish above last place, or at best, next-to-last. I’m not sure they will win more than 1 or 2 games overall.



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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