Last week, we looked at hypothetical Syracuse Orange football W-L records. But those didn’t necessarily intersect with what we actually think will happen this season. Now that we’re officially in game week, it’s time to deal in what we’re more certain of occurring.
That starts with projected ACC standings. We didn’t include actual records below, but the aggregate score from all seven participants gave us the following projections:
Obviously these are much kinder to Syracuse than the ACC’s preseason rankings were (SU was picked seventh in the Atlantic Division there). This is also not to say that a seventh place finish in our rankings means a team fails to make a bowl. There’s a legitimate shot that every ACC team makes a bowl this season. In my own unpublished W-L picks, I have a four-way tie for fourth in the Atlantic, and all of those teams are bowl-eligible.
We won’t be re-picking these each week, or doing a formal “power rankings” post this year — they take a lot of time, and no one really reads them. But did want to add some color to the thinking above just the same...
Overall
- All seven of us picked Clemson and Miami to win their respective divisions, creating an ACC Championship Game rematch
Atlantic
- Florida State was picked second by six of seven voters (Dan was the exception)
- I was the only one to pick Louisville to finish third
- Wake Forest had four third-place votes, BC had two, FSU had one
- Three different teams were picked last — NC State (three), Boston College (two), Louisville (two)
- Syracuse was picked fourth on three different ballots
- No one’s individual ballot was an exact match to the aggregate (Kevin’s was closest, though)
Coastal
- Virginia Tech earned five of seven second-place votes; Georgia Tech and Duke had the other two
- Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Duke were the only three teams to receive votes for second or third
- Steve was the only voter to pick Pitt fourth
- Virginia (five) and Pitt (two) made up all of the last-place votes
- I was the only voter to pick Virginia as high as fifth
- Brandon’s ballot was identical to the aggregate
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Agree with us? Disagree? Think we’re all #disloyalidiots for not picking Syracuse higher? Share your own standings picks below.