In a surprise to absolutely no one, through two weeks, the college football landscape as been almost flipped on its head. Some Top 10 teams have looked atrocious, others have looked like national champions through two games. It’s been a rough start for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Florida State’s collapse turned one of the ACC’s best to its worst. Clemson and NC State both got embarrassed on national stages by SEC teams. SMU and Stanford both lost non-conference home games. Some teams (very few) have impressed though and have risen since my preseason power rankings. Notably, Cal, BC, and Syracuse started 9th or lower and leaped into the top 5.
- Miami
- Louisville
- Cal
- Boston College
- Syracuse
- Clemson
- NC State
- Virginia
- Duke
- UNC
- Pitt
- Georgia Tech
- SMU
- Stanford
- Virginia Tech
- Wake Forest
- Florida State
I truly believe that Syracuse is a top five team in the ACC right now. There was never any doubt in my mind after the first five minutes in either of the Orange’s games that they would lose. You can’t say that about a lot of the other teams in the conference. I have BC ahead of SU because of the win at FSU, as bad as I think the Seminoles are. Cal won at Auburn who is supposed to be solid in the SEC this year which is impressive. Miami and Louisville both should be top 20 teams in the nation. Syracuse has a prime opportunity to jump past Boston College this week as the Eagles go on the road to #6 Missouri.
Further down the rankings, I have Clemson and NC State below Syracuse just because of how bad they looked against top tier competition. I probably would pick both to beat SU on a neutral site but, 2-0 > 1-1, and these rankings are based on performance not potential. Virginia, Duke, and Pitt all have looked average at best in all of their wins to start the season. The other undefeated team in the conference UNC, lost its starting quarterback in Week 1. Everyone else in the conference has lost a game and therefor is ranked lower.
