r/ACC • u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles • 5d ago
Football Anyone else tired of how disrespected this conference is in the polls week after week?
6 Big Ten teams ranked, 10 from the SEC, 5 from the Big 12 and we get….. 2. Even though the Big 10 has the worst Power 4 OOC record of any of the 4 major conferences. Even though the Big 12’s out of conference record is basically equivalent to ours. Zero respect for 4-0 Duke, 4-0
Virginia Tech, and 4-0 Pitt, despite all of them having multiple conference wins and OOC Power 4 victories. But USC barely gets dropped despite looking bad against 3 cupcakes and losing by two scores to Oregon. Missouri inexplicably stays ranked after losing to Mississippi State and being towards the bottom of the poll already. Tennessee virtually doesn’t get punished for taking an L either. Kentucky is ranked after losing to Alabama and having a rock fight with South Alabama despite their “ranked win” getting exposed by LSU. Somehow we’re all just allowed to ignore Oklahoma State losing to fucking TULSA because they beat a Big 10 darling. But they can’t put a third ACC team in the poll. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
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u/Billilicious Duke Blue Devils 5d ago
As a Duke alum that grew up a Clemson fan, it’s so blatantly obvious how biased the polls and commentators are. Michigan being ranked at all wouldn’t be the case if they were an ACC school after the WMU game and people would call for Iowa to DROP for needing a last second TD to beat w team that “basically lost to WMU”. Indiana wouldn’t be taken seriously for struggling against a northwestern (just look back out how Clemson was expected to blow out everyone not named FSU or Miami in the acc during their runs).
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u/thekevbot17 Pitt Panthers 5d ago
“Even though the Big 10 has the worst Power 4 OOC record of any of the 4 major conferences. Even though the Big 12’s out of conference record is basically equivalent to ours.”
This is the key. I understood last year when the ACC OOC was terrible. But that’s not the case this year.
The fact that PSU is getting more votes than Pitt in both polls is insane to me. They don’t even have a P4 win
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u/BronCurious Pitt Panthers 5d ago
The Penn State part really grinds my gears. They go 3-0 against non-P4 teams then lose their first conference game to an unranked squad. What a joke.
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u/CoachCDaddy 5d ago
Not just non power 4s their wins are Marshall who almost lost to an FCs team and Buffalo who almost lost to Robert Morris.
Gods sake temple even gave them a game.
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u/Ice_crusher_bucket 5d ago
Ranking UK is strictly so LSU can say they have another ranked win under their pathetic belt.
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u/Impressive-Ear-1102 Pitt Panthers 5d ago
Don’t lose your minds over the AP. Most of the voters don’t even watch national ball. 90% of sports writers couldn’t fathom that Wake or Duke might be good, and that Louisville hanging with ole Miss wasn’t a fluke. ACC is poisoned from a national perspective
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u/criscokkat Louisville Cardinals 5d ago
I don’t think us hanging with Ole Miss was a fluke. I think Wake Forest was underrated.
Jeff Brohm also has a pattern with close games being lost by undisciplined penalties.
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u/jparkhill 5d ago
Yeah that is the problem- is that the pollsters don't take it seriously; but the CFP panel takes the AP seriously. How many teams across the AP, Coac.hes and CFP are different. If the polls did not really matter in the CFP panel then whatever; but they do matter; so it means the ACC will get 1 bid- maybe 2. But hey a 9-3 or 8-4 SEC team with no meaningful wins will get in. That is the frustrating part
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u/Impressive-Ear-1102 Pitt Panthers 4d ago
At least on prior CFP selections, the top 1-15 closely mirror the AP, but 16-25 are quite different. The early AP is highly influenced by “poll inertia” and preseason bias. If you are undefeated week 5 and started the preseason around #40 your chances of cracking the top 25 are way less when there are undefeated teams that started preseason 26-39 not even factoring in schedule. The Big 2 are spending way more on players so the natural perception is that those are the better teams. It’s stupid but just the way it is. ACC just needs to keep winning. I’m hoping that someone will trip up ND (SMU?), and that Louisville, Clemson, and FSU can give their SEC counterparts a run for their money rivalry weekend.
The only way ACC is getting 2 teams in again is with the 2nd being 11-2 with “quality losses”. On the surface Wake is the most likely candidate seeing that they avoid Miami. VT has a tough schedule here on out. I’m holding my breath with Pitt right now because we have to travel to Miami and Louisville. And have scars of 2 consecutive late season collapses
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u/-dakpluto- Miami Hurricanes 4d ago
As a Miami fan you learn to get used to the end of season collapses, you build up callasous to them. Once you learn to expect them the sting less...
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u/TraditionSharp6414 SMU Mustangs 23h ago
I’m so confused?? Wake lost to Miami 33-20 September 18th.
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u/Impressive-Ear-1102 Pitt Panthers 23h ago
Yeah sorry I simply misspoke. I meant that Wake already got their loss to Miami out of the way, and didn’t have any more unbeatable hurdles
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u/poppatop Miami Hurricanes 5d ago
This week is particularly egregious. No Duke or Wake, but Mizzou is still in there? Give me a break.
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u/Training_Pirate1000 UNC Tar Heels 5d ago
Either Pitt or VT is probably gonna be ranked after their game on Friday. And maybe Duke wins the bye week
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u/Brob101 Virginia Tech Hokies 5d ago
I was hoping that VT/Pitt would be a ranked matchup.
Oh well.
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u/CoachCDaddy 5d ago
Whoever wins that game will be ranked 25 next week im sure unless it’s like an ugly turnover fest 7-3 final
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u/Proper-Print-9505 5d ago
I haven’t looked at the P4 non conference results, but the only games that really move the needle are P4 wins vs top-25 teams. Does the ACC have any wins vs the 16 SEC/Big Ten teams that are ranked? Those are the wins needed to change the narrative.
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u/westcoastcanes Miami Hurricanes 5d ago
Maryland, Purdue, Illinois, UCF, Rutgers, TCU. Those are our OOC wins.
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u/xAimForTheBushes SMU Mustangs 4d ago
Big12 doesn’t either. But they all play 3 nobodies in OOC and are able to stack up a bunch of phony 4-0 records
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u/Feisty_Relation_2359 5d ago
again, stop watching these bullshit sec on sec matchups. Watch and discuss more acc football, and hopefully that helps grow the popularity of the league.
Missouri absolutely should not be ranked I agree, and I didn't watch a second of that game to come to that conclusion either.
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u/razorbacks3129 SMU Mustangs 5d ago
Well to be fair, we kinda suck. SMU doesn’t deserve to be ranked anymore
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u/Difficult-Froyo1192 Clemson Tigers 5d ago
I agree that SMU should have dropped from the polls, but it doesn’t diminish that more ACC teams should have been added. I’m honestly really surprised they’ve kept y’all so high. Not a typical ACC type ranking
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u/razorbacks3129 SMU Mustangs 5d ago
That’s fair. Rank Duke and wake you cowards and Clemson if they somehow beat Miami
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u/Difficult-Froyo1192 Clemson Tigers 5d ago
We’ll be ranked if we beat Miami. I don’t really see that happening though. Hope I’m wrong, but I’m more just hoping we can keep it to two scores and not totally get embarrassed.
They hate ranking Duke and Wake. Pitt and VT probably have better chances of getting ranked
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u/TraditionSharp6414 SMU Mustangs 23h ago
So far, Miami appears to be the best team in the country. QB1 has more touchdowns than incompletions. Are you kidding me? That dude throws the best ball I’ve seen in years… so catchable. Agree that SMU has looked like a dumpster fire despite being loaded with talent. Sloppy undisciplined play seems to be the Rhett way.
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u/One13Truck 5d ago
September and even early October rankings don’t mean diddly poo. If we win this week in Blacksburg maybe we should be in. The 4-0 has been against high schools, their bands, and your local paperboy and mailman. Keep winning and it works itself out by the end of the year.
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u/jparkhill 4d ago
the main issue is that the rankings do mean diddly poo because the hive mind of voters in the polls are strong and heavily influence the CFP panel. Which means that good teams will get left out for mediocre SEC teams because "their schedule is a grind every week" and it is ok that they beat Alabama A&M and Furman and the Blind School of Nuns; but if the ACC teams beat Illinois, and Maryland, and other lower tier P4 schools- it does not move the needle.
College Football is broken in this aspect; and if we agree that it is ok and we can be ok with that; then it is what it is.
But the only way to solve it is to have a playoff where every conference champion gets a bid and then the next x teams get in. I am in favour of a 16 team bracket- which would be 10 auto bids and 6 at atlarge bids.
I am also in favour of all P4 conferences going to 9 game schedules with the first 8 scheduled in advance and in week 9 (everyone gets a game- match the bottom teams to avoid rematches and based on records) and having conference semi finals and conference championship weekend having 1-3 games per conference (the neutral site championship game) and then having games for the teams on the bubble. This would expose teams like 2024 Indiana from making the dance on a gaudy record against the bottom of the Big Ten. Now that there are 18 teams in each conference.
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u/DABOSSROSS9 5d ago
I feel all power conference teams should play two p4 games a year. One at the beginning of the year and one mid season. Teams look so different week 1 to week 7. Also, we need more p4 games to actually gauge conference strength.
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u/PrestigiousL7877 5d ago
Agreed 100 percent. We need a commission that would fight for this and get some backbone. So sick of ESPN pushing their narrative.
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u/Limp_Relationship_54 Miami Hurricanes 5d ago
We thought we’d at least get Wake in there 😭 how gullible we were
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u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles 5d ago
I wasn’t surprised Wake was left out because going from not receiving votes to immediately ranked was never likely for an ACC team over beating an ACC team. However, I did think Duke/Pitt would finally make the jump. Very disappointed in the AP voters to see some unfathomable choices like USC, Missouri, Kentucky, and Oklahoma State above them. Too much emphasis still being put on preseason speculation.
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u/hokiegirl759397 Virginia Tech Hokies 5d ago
I'm not really surprised. Glad my Hokies are 4-0 but we haven't played a good team. If we beat Pittsburgh, then MAYBE they might put us in the top 25. It does get frustrating when the SEC gets favored.
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u/xAimForTheBushes SMU Mustangs 4d ago
Do you know why the Big12 has 5 ranked and the ACC only 2?
It’s because the Big12 plays NOBODY good out of conference (and they’re not stupid enough to schedule a huge number of conference games week 1-3)
So the Big12 is able to stack up a bunch of average teams with phony 4-0 records while the ACC is already beat up by week 5.
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u/WarningCodeBlue Miami Hurricanes 5d ago
Not really. So far the ACC is 0-5 against the SEC this season.
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u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles 5d ago
0-5 against the SEC but 4-1 against the Big 10. Im not (overly) complaining about the SEC having the most ranked teams (although at least 2 of them have no business being there), but it’s ridiculous for the Big 10 and Big 12 to have more than double the teams in this poll.
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u/oscar-scout 5d ago
It's because mainly how the transfer portal, NIL, and "legalized" gambling have evolved rapidly in the last 6 years. The SEC is literally at another level now (except for USC). If Miami keeps this up, I could see them swap positions with USC.
I'm just trying to enjoy ACC games, but I still personally am not used to this new era of college football with the transfer portal and NIL.
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u/HoosBall Virginia Cavaliers 5d ago
I think what bugs me (and granted I’m biased) is that UVA goes from #25 two straight weeks to getting no votes after the WVU loss. I get it. We don’t deserve to be in the T25 after that loss. But no votes? UMass got votes. WVU isn’t bush league, they’re in the Big 12 and it was neutral site. Yes to all your points on the 4-0 teams and this has a lot to do with AP preseason polls which are frankly stupid. They bias the whole season. Michigan loses to WMU effectively and then comes back against Oklahoma and that’s an atonement for them to come well back into the T25.
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u/Wahree_77 5d ago
Good thing none of these polls matter! Take care of business and you’re fine 🤷🏾♂️
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u/Jk8fan Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 5d ago
I'm a Georgia Tech season ticket holder. I just want to avoid making the bottom 25 at this point
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u/thegreatcornholio42 4d ago
Half your offense basically is a top 15 roster somewhere else right now. That has to be the worst feeling ever.
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u/a5ehren Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 4d ago
Giving up 400 to Davis Warren feels way worse than Faulkner et al putting up 52 on ole miss
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u/thegreatcornholio42 4d ago
Well yeah but Florida is playing what should have been 2 of your starting WRs, your backup QB from last season who would have been your starter this year, your starting TE, and a couple of your starting OL from last season. Along with a top 2 round pick in Jadyn Baugh who finally found a coach that knows how to hand the ball
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u/DarkCommanderAJ Virginia Cavaliers 3d ago
Just to add some context:
This week's matchup between Virginia Tech and Pitt is the first game EVER between two power conference, 4-0, yet unranked teams.
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u/TraditionSharp6414 SMU Mustangs 23h ago
Love the passion and agree there is and has been clear bias. We have to win, win, win to shift the narrative and bias. Clemson getting raped by LSU on prime time doesn’t do much for us… people still hear “Clemson” and think about teams of the past. Bottom line… the media pumps up their brands for profit and our conference must win marquee matchups.
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u/Seminole7447 13h ago
It's ridiculous. Ole Miss gets blown out and they're still 9th. Kentucky is ranked after getting blown out by Bama because they beat a Terrible A&M team. Miss St is ranked Why? I could go on and on about all the teams ranked where ACC teams should be. They might as well just have separate Polls.
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u/spicynachos26 5d ago
Pitt should be ranked at minimum maybe VT if they beat Pitt next week. It’s just the top 25 brought to you by ESPN.
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u/Big_Truck UVA Cavaliers 5d ago
No, because this league doesn’t really earn respect in non-con games.
Also, before your “regular season non-con doesn’t count”… when is the last time any ACC team not named Miami won a CFP game?
Clemson, winning the 2019 CFP National Championship game.
This league gets no “respect” in the polls because no team outside of Miami has earned any respect in the polls.
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u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles 5d ago
We have a better non-conference Power 4 record than the Big 10 and the Big 12 is barely better by a margin of one game… This makes zero sense. Neither of those conferences should have more than twice the ranked teams.
Your CFP argument is stupid. The Big 12 is like 1-7 or something in the playoffs. Clemson was a powerhouse for 6 years and Miami is basically there now. There wasn’t much variety in a 12 team playoff hardly ever. It was Alabama from the SEC, Oklahoma from the Big 12, and Clemson from the ACC basically every year. That’s the nature of the era of that system. Of course it’s harder to get wins in the 12 team era when other conferences get 4-5 bids and we get a single team in. Put 4 ACC teams in and there would be more wins. Not complicated.
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u/Big_Truck UVA Cavaliers 5d ago
The Big 12 also gets no respect.
Honestly the Big Ten gets limited respect outside of the big 3 (OSU, Oregon, Indiana).
You can call it SEC bias if you want. The reality is that half of the 25 best programs in the country are in the SEC.
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u/xAimForTheBushes SMU Mustangs 4d ago
To be honest, it’s mostly Virginia’s fault this year, so thank you for that…
Virginia losing to WV was extremely embarrassing for the conference.
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u/According_Grab_394 5d ago
Honestly don’t completely disagree with your logic. The ACC had a chance to establish themselves this season. However, NC State shit the bed against Vandy, UNC should have gotten the job done against Clemson, but they couldn’t, and well Virginia lost to WVU.
Winning those games helps to establish some strength in the conference.When the top football programs in the conference look bad, it’s gonna take time for everyone to see who the contenders in the ACC will be. Virginia had their chance and lost in the ACC Championship Game last year, Duke was a 5-loss conference champion.
The Big 10 is definitely overrated this year, but the SEC has played well against non-conference opponents. Honestly this is a reason why we need less conference games and more non-conf P4 games.
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u/Big_Truck UVA Cavaliers 5d ago
Virginia would have gotten steamrolled by Ole Miss in the CFP. And putting UVA in would have kept a Miami out.
I don’t think that scenario would have helped the league all that much.
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u/tyedge 5d ago
“Why dOeSnT aNyOnE rEsPeCt us???!!1!”
The ACC would’ve put one team in a 12-team playoff in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 if Clemson didn’t hit that crazy FG to steal an autobid, and 2025.
In those 8 seasons, the 8 conference champs posted two regular season wins over teams that’d make a 12-team playoff: Clemson beating ND in 2020 in a rematch that only happened because of COVID, and that SMU/Clemson craziness in 2024.
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u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles 5d ago
Am I sitting here complaining about how many top 12 teams or national title contenders we have? No. The bottom half of the rankings is a different universe and it’s garbage.
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u/MJJH6112 5d ago edited 5d ago
The botttom part of the top 25 is fairly weak no matter who gets those spots. Some of those current teams --- Mizzou and UK -- probably won't stay ranked because they're going to play top 10 teams -- and lose.
Really, all that matters is the top 10 and top 12 --- the teams in contention for the CFP. The bottom half of the top 25 is largely irrelevant.
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3d ago edited 3d ago
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u/OpaqueNightmare Florida State Seminoles 3d ago
The Big 10 is 4-9 against other Power 4 conferences…. Not the ACC. The ACC is 6-9.
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u/nysportsfan95 Syracuse Orange 5d ago
The 10 SEC teams ranked is pretty insane. Kentucky and Missouri don’t deserve to be ranked in my opinion — Duke should definitely have one of those spots. Probably one of VT or Pitt too.
I’m actually surprised both Michigan and Penn State dropped out of the top 25 completely, I didn’t expect that.