2023 will in all likelihood be the final season with the collegiate football landscape as we currently know it. With UCLA, USC, Texas, and Oklahoma set to make the sport’s most potent conferences- the SEC and Big Ten- even more powerful come next season, it’s never been more important that the ACC produces a strong campaign from top-to-bottom. With Clemson not being its usual self the past few seasons, the ACC hasn’t sent a team to the College Football Playoff in three years. Odds are Syracuse will not be the one to solve that problem, but could a different conference foe get back to the sport’s holy grail?
SEC
There’s simply no introduction needed for far and away the best conference in college football. Georgia has won consecutive national titles, Alabama is Alabama, and up and down the conference schools like LSU, Tennessee, and Ole Miss have serious potential to make some noise. You can’t evaluate how the ACC compares to the SEC because it simply does not. It really does mean more down south.
BIG TEN
Another conference that needs no introduction thanks to the two powers that are Ohio State and Michigan. The Buckeyes came significantly closer to beating Georgia than anyone else a season ago, and the Wolverines have revamped their dominance in recent years. They alone make the Big Ten a force to be reckoned with, add in high-potential squads like Penn State and Wisconsin it becomes even more of one. There’s a reason UCLA and USC want in.
PAC-12
Speaking of the Bruins and Trojans, the PAC-12 has had a difficult time getting teams to the playoff lately. No school from out west has gotten there since Washington did it in 2016. If any school were to snap that skid this year, it would likely be USC, who sits at No. 7 in ESPN’s preseason poll. Elsewhere, barring a major overperformance from Oregon or Utah, it’s not exactly a threatening conference. At a bare minimum, it’s one the ACC ought to outperform.
BIG 12
Even with the Longhorns and Sooners, the Big 12 has always felt like a conference of mystery. Nobody expected TCU to make it to the national championship last season. That being said, expect both Texas and Oklahoma to bounce back from down years in their final season in the conference. But besides that, the Horned Frogs are probably not going to run the table again, making the Big 12 not a particularly scary group this year.
ACC
This year’s ACC is going to look a lot different because of the new scheduling format, but either way here’s how it sits right now. It’s Clemson & Florida State on top and then everybody else. So yes, there is theoretically an opening for SU to make some noise but it won’t come easy. North Carolina with Drake Maye is going to be tough, and schools like Pitt, Miami, and Louisville are never easy to usurp. The ceiling is very high for many schools in the ACC, Syracuse included, but the floor is also very low.
THE INDEPENDENT X-FACTOR
One independent could very well determine if an ACC team winds up in the College Football Playoff. That independent school is none other than Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish revamped their offense with QB Sam Hartman transferring from Wake Forest and find themselves at No. 9 in the preseason poll. Notre Dame doesn’t have a terribly difficult schedule except for an early November road date with Clemson. The Fighting Irish could absolutely make some noise and potentially disrupt an ACC team getting to the playoff.
As if every other college football season wasn’t a spectacle, this one should be even more of one. The sport is changing, and the next few months could determine if the ACC lives to see a few more years or begins to perish like the Big 12 and PAC-12.
