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BOZICH | Cards top Week 5 ACC football good, bad, preposterous rankings

  • Updated
  • 3 min to read
Louisville defense

Louisville's defense celebrates a third-down stop in a victory over Georgia Tech.

 ERIC CRAWFORD

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As always, the Southeastern Conference sucks all the oxygen from the debate about the best teams in college football. Honk if you've heard the talk that Kirby Smart's league will field half of the 12-team college football playoff field.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is scrambling for attention. At DraftKings, three ACC teams are listed among the top 29 teams to win the national title.

Those three are, in order: Miami (+1,800), Clemson (+4,000) and Louisville (+13,000).

After a week on the sidelines, I'm back with my rankings of the 17 ACC programs now that we have passed the quarter-pole on this season.

As I've previously noted, my ratings are skewed to reflect teams that have actually played conference games.

Miami is unbeaten. Miami is ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25. Miami is quarterbacked by Cam Ward, likely the frontrunner for the 2024 Heisman Trophy. Miami squashed Florida and South Florida.

Miami has not played an ACC opponent.

So the Hurricanes are not No. 1 in my rankings.

But they might be next week.

  1. Louisville (3-0, 1-0): I'm not giving the Cardinals the hometown discount. They're the only team unbeaten inside the league and outside the league. If they win as a six-point underdog at Notre Dame on Saturday, this season will get interesting, very interesting.
  2. Clemson (2-1, 1-0): The Tigers are not yet the team to beat in this league but they're better than the clown show they looked like against Georgia. Dabo's guys averaged nearly 261 rushing yards and four touchdowns while squashing Appalachian State and North Carolina State.
  3. Boston College (3-1, 1-0): As they prepare to host Western Kentucky on Saturday, the Eagles have already played three power conference opponents, handling Florida State and Michigan State while taking Missouri to the wire in Columbia. That's a reasonable schedule.
  4. Virginia (3-1, 1-0): Yes, the Cavaliers stumbled against Maryland, but they have a road win. In fact, they have two of them, including one in conference over Wake Forest. Some people were not certain the Cavs would win twice all season.
  5. Stanford (2-1, 1-0): That win at Syracuse on Friday night helped me forget the Cardinal lost to the TCU squad that has been beaten by Central Florida and SMU. This isn't Jim Harbaugh's Stanford.
  6. Miami (4-0, 0-0): The Hurricanes are likely the actual team to beat for the ACC title. Even though they've outscored their opponents by 168 points, I'm not going to say it until they beat somebody better Florida. (I just checked Miami's schedule again. The only ranked team the Hurricanes play is Louisville.)
  7. Pittsburgh (4-0, 0-0): Reports of Pat Narduzzi's demise were greatly exaggerated. The Panthers rank second in the ACC, behind Miami, in total offense. And they're 2-0 against the Big 12, which should help the ACC's computer numbers, right.
  8. Syracuse (2-1, 1-1): After the Orange lost to Stanford in the dome Friday night, the talk in town turned to whether Carmelo Anthony's son, Kiyan, plans to commit to the basketball program.
  9. Duke (4-0, 0-0): Elon, Northwestern, UConn, Middle Tennessee. I've seen tougher schedules in the Hoosier Hills Conference.
  10. Georgia Tech (3-2, 1-2): All that excitement created by the Yellow Jackets opening weekend score in Dublin, Ireland, was more of a reflection of how ordinary Florida State actually is. Right?
  11. SMU (3-1, 0-0): No team in America enjoyed a victory last week more than the Mustangs enjoyed hanging 66 points on TCU, which is coached by Sonny Dykes, who jilted the Mustangs for the Horned Frogs.
  12. California (3-1, 0-1): The Bears lead the country in frequent flier miles, traveling 2,429 miles to defeat Auburn and 2,267 to lose at Florida State. They should have scheduled an off week between the games and relaxed in Destin.
  13. Florida State (1-3, 0-1): Holding on in the fourth quarter to win a home game against California by five points ain't much, but it's better than losing to Memphis, right?
  14. North Carolina State (2-2, 0-1): The Wolfpack were a trendy pick to win the ACC by a few wise guys. No names to protect the innocent, including the author of this column. NC State allowed 110 points in its one-sided losses to Tennessee and Clemson.
  15. Wake Forest (1-2, 0-2): Credit the Demon Deacons with a refreshing self-assessment of their program. Even before they lost to Ole Miss, 40-6, last Saturday in Winston-Salem, Wake announced it was buying its way out of the return game in Oxford. They're no dummies.
  16. Virginia Tech (2-2, 0-0): When your wins are against Marshall and Old Dominion and your losses are to Vanderbilt and Rutgers, you can expect chatter about a coaching change in Blacksburg.
  17. North Carolina (3-1, 0-1): They're prepared a suite for Mack Brown at Del Boca Vista — and it should be available by October. 19, the Tar Heels' next off week.

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