One of the biggest reasons the ACC’s national football perception has suffered the last 10-15 years is that rarely there is a second or third team that stays ranked in the top 15.
Whether it was supposed to be FSU/Miami or Clemson/FSU or any number of other teams it has rarely happened that the ACC has its teams win enough to have multiple teams playing meaningful November football.
Just 6 times since 2005 when the ACC CHampionship started has the ACC Title game been a top 15 matchup, and just 3 times has it been a top 10 matchup.
What happens is inevitably the ACC starts cannibalizing itself. Multiple upsets happen and you are typically left with a championship game that isn’t as nationally relevant as it could be. Thanks to th expanded playoff, and ACC newcomer SMU we may get one.
NC State was ranked early in the season and fell away. Louisville was ranked early in the year, dropped out, got back in, and promptly fell apart at Stanford. Georgia Tech was briefly ranked, but could not sustain things. Clemson faceplanted against Georgia in their opener, worked themselves back to #11, and then tripped all over themselves losing to Louisville at home. FSU started the season ranked #10 and we know how that ended up.
SMU after taking care of business 38-28 against Boston College has moved one step closer to punching their ticket to Charlotte.
There is still a sneaky dangerous game at Virginia, and then SMU has to host California, but right now SMU is ranked #14 and a constant in the playoff discussion. No other ACC team besides the Miami Hurricanes has played enough consistent football to stay in that playoff conversation.
SMU has done so far what almost no other ACC team has done this year. They’ve won and they’ve largely kept winning.
They have done exactly what the ACC has needed them to be – an infusion of quality football that keeps multiple teams from the conference in the national playoff conversation.
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