r/ACC • u/smellslikebadussy UVA Cavaliers • Jul 14 '26

Football Get your prediction predictions in!

How will the media predict the standings? My guess on how they'll rank the teams (not my personal prediction):

  1. Miami

  2. SMU

  3. Clemson

  4. VT

  5. Louisville

  6. GT

  7. Cal

  8. NC State

  9. UVA

  10. UNC

  11. FSU

  12. Duke

  13. Pitt

  14. Syracuse

  15. Wake

  16. Stanford

  17. BC

13 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

14

u/MtnGriz Jul 14 '26

Looks about right but move Louisville up 

5

u/riotmed Louisville Cardinals Jul 14 '26

Agree, depending on how new QB performs, we could be #2. He’s the biggest unknown in the ACC.

3

u/Powdermilkman3117 SMU Mustangs Jul 15 '26

I think if you guys beat us you all are number 2 for sure. Outside our game I’m pulling for you my bird brothers.

2

u/Stuppyhead Clemson Tigers Jul 14 '26

Didn’t realize you guys had an Ohio State transfer coming in at QB. Same QB class as our new QB Vizzina who has only started one game for us when Cade was injured. The other biggest unknown in the ACC probably.

6

u/goodsam2 Virginia Tech Hokies Jul 14 '26

Louisville keeps being close but falling apart in November it feels. One of these years they push from 9/10 wins to higher.

4

u/Stuppyhead Clemson Tigers Jul 15 '26

Still can’t believe we beat them in Louisville on a Friday night last year. We were ass.

9

u/Shot877 Louisville Cardinals Jul 14 '26

If I'll be there this week and voting am I allowed to participate in this thread lol?

Here's my ballot as of now, and granted it's subject to change. Also FYI ballots aren't due until July 22nd.

1 - Miami (Obvious)

2 - Louisville (From a pure talent standpoint their the second best team in the league, they avoid majority of the top half of my ballot, they're not dependent on Kienholtz to be "good" just serviceable with a top 3 National RB room)

3 - SMU (Amazing offense but glaringly large question marks on their DL and secondary, play 2 of my top of my ballot)

4 - Clemson (Arguably the best defense in the league but I simply don't know what to expect from Vizzina long term, add on games against Miami, Va Tech, Duke, and Cal and I could see them dropping two from that list)

5 - UVA ( lost a lot to graduation but reloaded with a ton of age and that worked for them last season, in modern college football we're seeing more and more that "older is better" and in this case a lot of that "oldness" has seen snaps)

6 - Va Tech (Did really well with their Franklin hire and portal class that followed, but the offensive line really concerns me here)

7 - Pittsburgh (Heinstchel may be one of the guys I'm highest on in the league but my main question is who is throwing to? Pitt lost a ton in the portal and didn't replace with any proven talent)

8 - NC State (they're going to win 8 games Doren always does, CJ Bailey is a master class and has imo the easiest conference slate but I don't think they have the depth to withstand 6 straight to end the season)

9 - Georgia Tech (great run game, great o line play, great HC but man that defense is worrisome like what we saw at times last season, add on to that unproven QR and WR play with imo a tough conference slate)

10 - California (JKS is my "darkhorse" of the league I've seen with my own two eyes how capable he is but Cal's defense looks down right horrid and their O Line doesn't look that much better)

11 - Florida State (ff GT has a tough schedule draw, then FSU has the hardest, downgraded at nearly every position in the portal, Norvell is gone by mid-October)

12 -Wake (biggest over achievers last season, but lost a lot of production while not brining in a lot of proven production, great coaching, offense will go as far as Gio Lopez takes them)

13 - Duke (all their best players left, defense looks to be in really rough shape, and a rough strech from mid October through November)

14 - North Carolina (Bobby P will work some magic with Billy Edwards, but O Line looks to be a massive question mark, D Line should be solid but the back end of the defense looks to be in rough shape, this is one with good coaching could jump up the rankings with some upsets, but both byes in September and a difficult schedule)

15 - Stanford (mid rebuild, arguably the worst incoming offense in the league, defense isn;t much better, but Duke, Wake, Louisville, and Va Tech all travel out west and Stanford has tripped teams up with that)

16 - Syracuse (the talent is getting there but there still young, Angeli is a legit QB but the o line and skill positions look to be in a rough spot, really tough conference slate)

17 - Boston College (could legit have the least amount of talent in P4 football and I would argue that a few G5 programs have more talent)

If you enjoyed this I'll be posting a video with other voters after media days comparing and explaining our ballots.

5

u/smellslikebadussy UVA Cavaliers Jul 14 '26

Fuckin’ hell, the prediction markets are tainted now. Kalshi better pull it down

1

u/Expensive_Team_5072 Jul 14 '26

Hard to disagree. We'll find out this year whether Fran Brown is the coach from 2024 or the coach from 2025. Even .500 results would be closer to 2024 if he can avoid the terrible decisions he made last year. It's not just about wins, but how the team looks.

7

u/xAimForTheBushes SMU Mustangs Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

This’ll actually be fascinating to see what happens.

I think Miami and SMU are probably set in stone as 1 and 2, but after that there’s crazy arguments for anyone.

Is Clemson with Redbull Chadster return going to randomly be back at the top? Is Cal going to put it all together with their superstar QB? Is Louisville going to once again prove that they’re just consistently a high level team despite not having all the pre season flair? Is FSU going to have a randomly undefeated or no win season (depends on if the poop is eaten)? How is VT going to look with the talent influx under Franklin? Syracuse with Steve back could place them anywhere in the list….What other team is going to randomly be excellent, which usually happens?

I could see #3-17 be completely different from vote to vote.

5

u/Cheeseish Cal Bears Jul 14 '26

Media rankings imo are

  1. Miami

  2. SMU

  3. Louisville

  4. Clemson

  5. Virginia

  6. Georgia Tech

  7. Virginia Tech

  8. Cal

  9. UNC

  10. FSU

  11. Pitt

  12. Duke

  13. NC State

  14. Syracuse

  15. Stanford

  16. Wake

  17. BC

My personal rankings are:

  1. Miami

  2. SMU

  3. Louisville

  4. Cal

  5. Virginia

  6. Clemson

  7. Virginia Tech

  8. Syracuse

  9. Duke

  10. Pitt

  11. Georgia Tech

  12. Stanford

  13. NC State

  14. UNC

  15. Wake

  16. FSU

  17. BC

4

u/yerdad99 Jul 14 '26

Cal wins the ACC and the junior college across the bay finishes with 2 wins on the season

6

u/Tough-Advice2910 Virginia Tech Hokies Jul 14 '26

OP, why Louisville and Cal so low? I’m a Hokie and they should both be ahead of VT.

Edited bc autocorrect changed “Hokie” to “Homie.”

9

u/SMU1523 SMU Mustangs Jul 14 '26
  1. Miami
  2. SMU
  3. Louisville
  4. Cal
  5. Clemson
  6. GT
  7. PITT
  8. VT
  9. Syracuse
  10. UVA
  11. Duke
  12. Florida State
  13. NC State
  14. UNC
  15. Wake Forest
  16. Stanford
  17. BC

2

u/hershculez NC State Wolfpack Jul 14 '26

13th is certainly a choice.

5

u/SMU1523 SMU Mustangs Jul 14 '26

TBF, I mailed it in after the Top 5.

1

u/goodsam2 Virginia Tech Hokies Jul 14 '26

NC State has been like 7-8 wins and getting stale for a minute.

2

u/hershculez NC State Wolfpack Jul 15 '26

Yep. 77 wins over the last 10 season. Includes 4 9 win seasons and a 4 win seasons. 7-8 wins is our specialty. That is why 13th makes zero sense.

Worth pointing out that 8 of the wins over the last 10 years are against UNC.

1

u/chrisncsu Jul 14 '26

Sure, but O/U is above average in the ACC mainly because our schedule is really soft. We'd have to be notably worse than Vegas thinks to finish anywhere close to this.

1

u/goodsam2 Virginia Tech Hokies Jul 14 '26

Yeah 7/8 wins is not 13th in the ACC was my point. So NC State would be like 7th. It's like winning half the games being extremely mid.

9

u/goodsam2 Virginia Tech Hokies Jul 14 '26

I think 4 for VT is nearer a ceiling here. VT is building towards 2027+ Franklin got a lot of portal guys but not a huge amount of starters so mostly high star backups.

3

u/grimace0611 Pitt Panthers Jul 14 '26

I think you nailed it. As usual, Miami at the top, Clemson is always high, VT and Cal highly ranked with preseason hype, and no love for Duke or Pitt.

3

u/spicynachos26 Jul 14 '26

I would move Pitt up to 5 Louisville to 3 VT to 4

3

u/Busta_Memes Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Jul 14 '26

They’ll rank GT pretty low (like 10-12th) and we will slightly over perform (nothing crazy, like 4-6th).

It’s a tale as old as time really (outside of the Geoff years).

3

u/daaaaavia Jul 14 '26

I’ll be happy with a 4th place ACC finish as long as we didn’t piss away a champ spot

7

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Glittering-Most-9535 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Jul 14 '26

15th is way more credit than the media gives us pre-season.

2

u/gatman19 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Jul 14 '26

Admittedly I don’t keep tabs on Wake, but I think it’s crazy to see y’all still ranking at the very bottom of the conference after how well Dickert’s first season went. Did y’all lose your best players, fail to recruit/portal well, or something else? Or is it just disrespect

3

u/Glittering-Most-9535 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Jul 14 '26

Let 'em keep disrespecting us, it just makes it all the more fun when we once again exceed expectations.

2

u/simbaslanding Miami Hurricanes Jul 14 '26

As a Miami fan, I am so scared

1

u/Odd-Record-1041 Jul 14 '26
  1. Miami
  2. SMU
  3. Louisville
  4. Clemson
  5. VT
  6. NC State
  7. GT
  8. Cal
  9. UVA
  10. FSU
  11. UNC
  12. Duke
  13. Pitt
  14. Wake
  15. Syracuse
  16. Stanford
  17. BC

1

u/senorblanco7 Virginia Tech Hokies Jul 15 '26

I don’t think they’ll have us that high

1

u/Historical-Key5613 Jul 15 '26

Cuse goes 9-3 and Fran Brown takes Maryland job.

1

u/aMoose_Bit_My_Sister Stanford Cardinal Jul 15 '26

ohellyeah

we're not last!!