For some off-season football reading, we already looked at the ACC’s 15 best Out of Conference wins of the 2020s. With the good comes the bad, and these the worst ACC losses OOC of the decade.
We ranked the ACC’s 50 biggest OOC wins of the 2010s if you’d like a look at the previous decade.
Worst Losses
1. Florida State 17 Jacksonville State 20 – September 11, 2021
It doesn’t get any worse than for Florida State and the ACC. Florida State lost to an FCS school that ended up with a 5-6 record. Jacksonville State threw a game-winning 59-yard pass as time ran out for the stunning victory. It was a nightmare of a loss in every sense of the word for Florida State. The decade has 6 more years, but what are the odds you’ll see a worse loss for an ACC school this decade? I don’t think we’ll see one. Oddly enough the Noles have the best win of the decade in the ACC too.
2. Virginia Tech 17 Old Dominion 20 – September 18, 2021
Oh this loss for Virginia Tech to Old Dominion was awful when it happened, and just got worse looking as the season continued. Old Dominion went 3-9, and at just 2-6 in the Sun Belt was one of the worst teams in the Sun Belt. The Hokies got outscored 10-0 in the 4th quarter as one of the hallmarks of Virginia Tech football this decade is blowing 4th quarter leads. This was just an embarrassing loss for the league and Virginia Tech.
3. Pittsburgh 41 Western Michigan 44 – September 18, 2021
Pittsburgh won the ACC and won 11 games, but this was an ugly loss. You can’t have your conference champion losing to a team that finished 4th in the MAC. It’s a really bad look. The Pitt defense gave up over 500 yards on defense, and you felt like Pittsburgh didn’t build off the win at Tennessee the week before. The Panthers recovered after this loss, but the ACC’s better teams need to avoid losses like this in the future.
4. Miami 31 Middle Tennesee 45 – September 24, 2022
It’s hard to believe Miami came into this game against Middle Tennessee ranked at #25. The Hurricanes were run out of their stadium by an MTSU team that had lost 44-7 earlier in the week to James Madison. Middle Tennessee rolled up over 500 yards of offense in the game and raced out to a 24-3 lead and never looked back. Mario Cristobal got his first true indication that the restoration project at Miami was not going to be an easy one.
5. Virginia Tech 35 Liberty 38 – November 7, 2020
Liberty turned out to be a pretty good team finishing the season with just 1 loss and ranked, but under any circumstances should Virginia Tech be losing at home to the Flames, and certainly not in the way they lost. Being a loss to an in-state school compounded the issues with this one. A debacle of a finish with Justin Fuente’s timeout giving Liberty’s kicker another chance to win the game cost the Hokies dearly and sent Virginia Tech fans into an irate frenzy.
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