2017 the ACC again had a participant in College Playoff, that makes every year they have had a participant in the Playoff. The only other conference who can make that statement is the SEC. 2017 saw the fall of Florida State which led to the departure of Jimbo Fisher and Coach Willie Taggart getting his “Dream Job” at FSU. FSU has loads of talent still (as can be seen in the Top 25 rankings). Clemson received a gift when their entire Front 4 decided to come back on Defense, despite having excellent chances at being drafted in the first round or 2. It looks to be one of the greatest Defensive fronts in the last decade, if not ever. Miami had a resurgent year in 2017 making it to the Orange Bowl before losing to Wisconsin. They will look to continue that improvement under Coach Mark Richt. Besides front-running team FSU being down last year the ACC had a good year. However they have lost quite a bit of talent (particularly NCSU on Defense and Louisville losing a Heisman Winner at QB), so this will look to be a down year for FSU.
Going through the rankings you see a lot of parity, and that should play out in the end of season standings with a lot of teams between 5-7 and 8-4, and around .500 in conference play.
For each Conference we will have the Simplified Football predictions (record) with the Projected Win-Shares and rating of each team next to it.
ACC Predictions:
Atlantic
Team – Record (Conf) / Win-Shares (Conf) / Rating
- Clemson – 12-0 (8-0) / 10.15 (6.5) / 5.10
- FSU – 9-3 (6-2) / 9.33 (6.08) / 4.91
- Louisville – 7-5 (4-4) / 6.45 (3.7) / 4.03
- Boston College – 8-4 (4-4) / 6.55 (3.4) / 4.08
- NC State – 8-4 (4-4) / 6.46 (3.4) / 3.97
- Wake Forest – 7-5 (3-5) / 6.36 (3.31) / 4.06
- Syracuse – 6-6 (3-5) / 5.3 (2.83) / 3.69
Coastal
Team – Record (Conf) / Win-Shares (Conf) / Rating
- Miami – 8-4 (5-3) / 7.95 (4.82) / 4.37
- Duke – 8-4 (5-3) / 6.9 (4.1) / 4.22
- Virginia Tech – 8-4 (4-4) / 6.94 (3.89) / 4.09
- UNC – 6-6 (4-4) / 5.98 (3.63) / 3.77
- Georgia Tech – 6-6 (3-5) / 5.97 (3.5) / 3.94
- Pittsburgh – 4-8 (2-6) / 5.49 (3.84) / 3.85
- Virginia – 5-7 (1-7) / 5.95 (3.00) / 3.58
Rematch in the ACC championship game between Miami and Clemson. With Clemson winning again. Clemson makes the playoffs going undefeated. FSU likely goes to Orange Bowl at 9-3 and finishes in top 15 (maybe top 10). Miami, Duke, VT, NCSU, and BC all compete for Top 25 honors. 12 teams make a Bowl Game.
At the end of the first paragraph, do You mean to write, down Year for the ACC?