Around the ACC
Clemson – All we have to do is beat VT in Blacksburg on a Thursday night and then defeat a high-minded NC State team and a Maryland team that is flying way under the radar… AND THEN hope that someone else in the league knocks off Boston College.
Boston College is in the Atlantic Division drivers seat. With one loss and the head-to-head win over Clemson, they just have to not lose to Wake, Duke, Maryland, or Miami. If you, like me, think that Wake is overrated, and that Duke, Maryland, and Miami just suck, then the chances of Clemson making it to the ACCCG are quite dismal and despressing.
Wake Forest is still 6-1 after a bye week, but 5 league games loom. I call them overrated, but overachieving is perhaps a better word. Their chances to be Overachievers Cum Laude pretty much require a Clemson league loss and their own wins over the now headless corpse of UNC, Boston College, FSU, VT, and Maryland. Think they can do it? I’ll bet you a shiny nickel they won’t hang.
Maryland is exactly tied with Wake at 2-1 in conference and shockingly is 5-2 overall. I’ve been double-checking that stat all weekend. I wrote the turtles off as dead long ago, especially after their 14-10 squeaker over Florida International in College Park. Remaining on their slate are FSU, Clemson, Miami, BC, and Wake Forest. There’s little reason to suspect they are “for real”, but I can see them taking 3 of their remaining games. Or if they win out they go the ACCCG. Wouldn’t that shock the shit out of everyone!
NC State is now 2-2 in conference and in 5th place in the division. The momentum from the FSU and BC upsets is officially gone after losing consecutive games to Wake and Maryland. They’re just 3-4 overall and still need 3 wins against UVA, GT, Clemson, UNC, and ECU to become bowl eligible. I expect they’ll somehow split the first 4 games with a shocking win and shocking loss and then need the game against ECU for their 6th victory.
Florida State, yes THE Florida State is now last in the Atlantic Division. They’re now just 4-3 after giving up another conference loss to BC this weekend. Hopefully they can piece things together a bit before facing their remaining daunting ACC games: Maryland, UVA, and Wake. How screwed up is the ACC when that slate sounds like a tough road for the Seminoles? After that they host Western Michigan before they’ll play a surprisingly inspired game and upset Florida. Either way, no championship for this team this year. If you really want to be mean, you could convince yourself that FSU won’t even make a bowl!
Now, onto the Coastal Division:
Georgia Tech remains atop the division after being brutalized Saturday night. For their sake, let’s hope that Clemson is just by far the best team they have to face this year and that they’ll be able to recover before they start wearing black clothes, hiding from the sun, and muttering incessantly about “conformists.” With Miami, NC State, UNC, and Duke remaining on their conference slate, they just might be able to avoid becoming faggy goth kids. A loss to any of these 4 teams and the Jackets will quickly get thrown into the pretenders bin. And if they don’t beat an ugly UGA this year, God help them.
Miami, for all its bad behavior and seemingly neverending nosedive is still 5-2 overall and 2-1 in conference. Unlike the Terps who are flying under the radar, Miami is flying right through it and I’m still shocked that they have 5 wins. Sagarin ranks them 58th. He ranks their schedule 117th. Everyone in America — except the students at Duke who were too busy practicing their spelling of Sheshevsky — was hoping that Duke would pull off the “upset” last weekend. With games remaining against GT, VT (god who do you root for in that one?), Maryland, UVA, and BC and they just might finish with 5 losses. Of course if they lost all of them and finished 5-7 I’d say that it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of young men.
Virginia Tech is now 5-2 but only 2-2 in conference after most recently running all over Southern Miss. They’ll shortly be 5-3 and 2-3, but they probably should beat Miami, Kent State, Wake Forest, and in-state rival UVA.
Virginia is 2-2 in the ACC and is tied with VT. That will happen when you suck slightly less than Duke and UNC. They even showed signs of life by beating Maryland for a few quarters before realizing the natural order and giving up. Good job Hoos. They’re 3-5 now, and after they face NC State, FSU, Miami, and Virginia Tech they’ll finish just 3 games shy of being bowl eligible. Not bad for a rebuilding year.
UNC/Duke is 1-13 on the year, with another victory guaranteed. Three times this year Duke has been on the precipice of breaking through with upset wins — Wake, ‘Bama, and Miami — but to no avail. UNC on the other hand probably had it’s best game — its first game — when it lost to Rutgers by only 5 points at home. Unlike Duke, UNC did manage to beat its I-AA competition. Barely. It doesn’t matter who either team plays from here on out. They’ll finish 2-20 on the season, with Duke prevailing in the head-to-head matchup.
What are the overriding themes here? First, the Coastal division, if ranked as its own conference, would probably end up last in the nation. Thus far, I think the Coastal is only 1-7 against the Atlantic. Second, most teams are showing little in the way of consistency, with at least one team crumbling horrifically and inexplicably each weekend.
My predicted conference records for the rest of the season (and yes they don’t entirely square with what I said above. I expect UNC will shock NC State.):
- BC: 7-1
- Clemson: 7-1
- Maryland: 5-3
- Wake: 4-4
- NC State: 4-4
- FSU: 3-5
- GT: 6-2
- VT: 5-3
- Miami: 3-5
- UVA: 2-6
- Duke: 1-7
- UNC: 0-8
Sucks. Doesn’t it?
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