Athlon Sports released its “Outrageous Predictions” for the 2019 season in the ACC. One of the predictions had Clemson football losing to Syracuse.
Athlon Sports released an article detailing “Outrageous Prediction” for the upcoming season in the ACC and Clemson football, as expected, was a popular topic.
One of the outrageous predictions for the ACC was that Syracuse would knock off Clemson in the Carrier Dome in Week 3. This has been a popular upset pick among analysts looking for bold predictions in the preseason and it’s not a surprise that athlete would go there with an “Outrageous” prediction article.
That being said, the author of the article still has Syracuse going 10-2 and Clemson winning the ACC Atlantic, and the conference for that matter.
Interestingly enough, Athlon predicts that the ACC Atlantic will have three teams with 10-plus wins. The article has Clemson penciled in as the champion with an 11-1 record, it has Syracuse going 10-2 and it has NC State going 11-1 with the Wolfpack’s lone loss coming against Clemson football.
While it’s fun to dream, outrageous predictions should still be realistic.
NC State may have a decent defense, but there’s no way in our estimation that Wolfpack goes 11-1. NC State may very well not finish in the top-four of the ACC Atlantic, much less be a CFB Playoff contender going into the back-half of the season.
As far as the Syracuse upset, it’s easy to see why that’s a popular bold prediction when discussing the ACC.
The Orange will be motivated and they have played Clemson close in each of the last two outings, actually winning the game two years ago up in the Carrier Dome.
That being said, the more analysts predict an upset in this game, the more I’m starting to believe Clemson is going to win handily. Last season, everyone pointed to the NC State game as an ‘upset alert’ game for the Tigers.
Everyone talked about how the Wolfpack played the Tigers close and how they’d do it again. Instead, Clemson football came away with a 41-7 victory and absolutely controlled the game from start-to-finish.
What do you think, Clemson fans? Comment below with your thoughts on the predictions and what you think could be a realistic outrageous prediction for the ACC in 2019.