Middle of the rankings highly competitive, ACC Power Rankings- Week three
After a slightly disappointing week one, the ACC storms back in week two.
With two conference games this week and Florida State on a bye week, the remaining 12 teams went 10-2 against nonconference opponents, including wins over the SEC, Big 12, and Big 10, with the first being the game of the week for the ACC. Newcomer California went into Jordan-Hare stadium and knocked off Auburn, holding it to 14 points after the Tigers dropped 73 on Alabama A&M.
On the other hand, the two losses were also against Power Four competition. Tennessee clobbered NC State 51-10, and SMU lost a sloppy game against BYU, totaling six turnovers with three coming on back-to-back-to-back drives.
Week Three ACC Power Rankings
Rank | School | Game Result | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Miami | W, Florida A&M 56-9 | 1 |
2 | Louisville | W, Jacksonville State 49-14 | 2 |
3 | Clemson | W, Appalachian State 66-20 | 3 |
4 | NC State | L, Tennessee 51-10 | 4 |
5 | North Carolina | W, Charlotte 38-20 | 5 |
6 | Florida State | Bye | 7 |
7 | Georgia Tech | L, Syracuse 31-28 | 6 |
8 | Virginia Tech | W, Marshall 31-14 | 10 |
9 | SMU | L, BYU 18-15 | 8 |
10 | California | W, Auburn 21-14 | 11 |
11 | Boston College | W, Duquesne 56-0 | 13 |
12 | Syracuse | W, Georgia Tech 31-28 | 12 |
13 | Duke | W, Northwestern 26-20 | 9 |
14 | Pittsburgh | W, Cincinnati 28-27 | 15 |
15 | Virginia | W, Wake Forest 31-30 | 14 |
16 | Wake Forest | L, Virginia 31-30 | 16 |
17 | Stanford | W, Cal Poly 41-7 | 17 |
The ACC is starting to separate itself into three groups: the contenders, the middle, and the basement. Rankings one through six are the true contenders for the ACC Championship. Florida State is still in that range because of its sheer talent, but if it loses one more game, it'd be hard to justify ranking the Seminoles that high. Teams 15 through 17 are the bottom of the barrel, although Stanford has shown flashes, and until we start conference play, it stays in the basement.
But the middle is the biggest and most unpredictable of the three. No. 7 through No. 14 have shown some promise at times and disappointed in others, and it just brings out questions that we have to wait until at least the middle of the season to find the answers to.
For example, Virginia Tech lost a close game to the worst team in the SEC, or so we thought. The Commodores are a victory away from winning their first three games of the season since 2017. They also beat Alcorn State 55-0 for its first shutout since 2019. With Diego Pavia, they look like a good football team. So that begs the question, are the Hookies still an ACC dark horse candidate? If Vandy is, indeed, as good as the eye test shows, then yes.
With California beating Auburn and SMU looking horrible against BYU, are the Golden Bears actually better than the Mustangs? Also, is Boston College legit? It just hammered Duquesne 56-0 and beat FSU the week before. There's so much confusion that it's nearly impossible to rank the middle at this point in the season.
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