King of the Hill: ACC Football Power Rankings (Week 10)

Here’s how I rank the conference teams based on what we’ve seen so far. Number in parentheses is the team’s ranking last week.

1. (1) Clemson (9-0) - 59-14 win over Wofford
2. (2) Wake Forest (7-1) - 44-10 win over NC State
3. (3) Louisville (5-3) - Bye
4. (4) Virginia (6-3) - 38-31 win over North Carolina
5. (6) Pitt (6-3) - 20-10 win over Georgia Tech
6. (7) Virginia Tech (5-3) - 21-20 loss to Notre Dame
7. (8) Boston College (5-4) - 58-27 win over Syracuse
8. (10) Miami (5-4) - 27-10 win over Florida State
9. (5) Florida State (4-5) - Lost to Miami
10. (9) North Carolina (4-5) - Lost to Virginia
11. (12) Duke (4-4) - Bye
12. (11) North Carolina State (4-4) - Lost to Wake Forest
13. (13) Syracuse (3-6) - Lost to Boston College
14. (14) Georgia Tech (2-6) - Lost to Pitt

Not too much craziness in the rankings this week.

The first four teams all stayed the same with the No. 6, 7, and 8 teams last week all moving up a slot. That includes new No. 5 Pitt, who gets a slight bump after the win against Georgia Tech. Florida State takes the biggest tumble, going from No. 5 to No. 9 after losing decidedly to Miami.

Miami, by the way, seems the hardest to rank. They are getting better and showing improvement but still have the early losses to teams like North Carolina and Virginia Tech to account for. And if we’re nitpicking, they just lost to Georgia Tech two weeks ago. But if you’re looking at teams that are playing well in the conference, Miami is definitely one that is surging after such a slow start. They’ve won three of their last four games and have knocked off both Virginia and Pitt, which are possibly the top two Coastal teams. If this was all about what you’ve done lately, you can make an argument that Miami deserves to be higher.

Florida State had to take that big hit, in my mind. At this point, they’ve got one decent win over Louisville and three weak victories (Syracuse, NC State, and Louisiana-Monroe). And with the firing of head coach Willie Taggart on Sunday, they aren’t looking great. They’ve played a very tough schedule that has included Clemson, Wake, Boise State, Virginia, Miami, and Louisville, but they looked pretty bad this weekend in a game that was expected to be closer.

NC State looks quite bad. They’re a respectable 4-4 overall but their wins have come against Syracuse, East Carolina, Western Carolina, and Ball State. They’ve been beaten badly in losses against West Virginia, Florida State, Wake, and Boston College. The closest of those four games? A whopping 17-point loss to West Virginia. Things don’t get any easier this week with a game against Clemson. We’ve made a big point this year of discussing just how bad Syracuse and Georgia Tech have been. But NC State has not been much better if we’re being honest.

And with no game against Georgia Tech, Syracuse has a real shot at going winless in conference, wrapping up at Duke, at Louisville, and home against Wake Forest. Quite the fall from a preseason Top 25 ranking.

What about you? What does your ranking look like?

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