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FSU Football: ACC preseason picks a good sign for Seminoles

By Jason Parker

ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 30: A Florida State Seminoles cheerleader runs a flag on the field before a game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on August 30, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 30: A Florida State Seminoles cheerleader runs a flag on the field before a game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on August 30, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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FSU football is predicted to watch the ACC Championship Game this season, and that good be good news because of how often the picks have been wrong.

Entering the 2018 college football season, there are not a lot of people outside of the city of Tallahassee or the FSU football family who are thinking that the Seminoles will be in Charlotte this December on the first Saturday of the month for the ACC championship game – a place the Noles haven’t been since 2017.

You can count the media who was in the city last week for the conference’s kickoff media event among those who think the Seminoles will be watching that game being played. During the two day event, the media overwhelmingly voted for a rematch of the 2017 title game between the Clemson Tigers and Miami Hurricanes.

In fact, it was so overwhelming that the Tigers got 145 of the 148 votes casts for a winner of the ACC’s Atlantic Division while FSU football got just one (the Seminoles ended up finishing second in the predictions despite N.C. State getting the other two first place votes).

Whoever picked the Noles also had them winning the whole conference – while 139 of the 148 people picked Clemson and the other eight votes selected either the Hurricanes, Wolfpack or Virginia Tech Hokies.

All of this could be some of the best news for the FSU football team heading into the 2018 football season – and why, you may ask? Well, because of how wrong these predictions have been over the past few seasons.

Here’s a look at what the preseason media predictions have been for the last seven seasons, with the predictions that were correct in bold:

"2017 – Florida State over Miami2016 – Clemson over North Carolina2015 – Clemson over Georgia Tech2014 – Florida State over Miami2013 – Clemson over Miami2012 – Florida State over Virginia Tech2011 – Florida State over Virginia Tech"

So, aside from the fact that we see the Hurricanes underachieving more than any other team during this decade, just six of the 14 teams picked to make it to Charlotte actually did that – under 50 percent, for those of us who were told there would be no math.

Now, I’m not sitting here for one second and saying that all of us FSU football fans should be booking a trip to Charlotte on December 1st – but what it does mean is that those who pick these things every year aren’t always on the ball when it comes to getting everything right.

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Clemson and Miami should be the favorites because, at this point, they are the best teams on paper entering the season. The Seminoles, with a schedule that includes both teams as well as a Virginia Tech team picked to finish second in the Coastal Division, will get a chance to play spoiler plenty this season.

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