FSU football: ACC Power Rankings after week seven

I had FSU football in the top half of my preseason ACC Power Rankings, and there’s still some truth in that after losing to three of the better teams in the ACC by a combined 18 points.

Syracuse benefited from FSU knocking NC State’s QB out for the rest of the year as I said they would last week. Their win sets up a showdown against Clemson, with the winner in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.

FSU will have a much-needed bye-week before returning to action against Georgia Tech in two weeks.

North Carolina solidified their spot at the top of the ACC Coastal with a come-from-behind win over Duke.

Here are my updated rankings after seven weeks by division and then overall as a conference:

ACC Atlantic

• Clemson (7-0, 5-0 ACC)
• Wake Forest (5-1, 1-1 ACC)
• Syracuse (6-0, 3-0 ACC)
• NC State (5-2, 1-2 ACC)
• FSU (4-3, 2-3 ACC)
• Boston College (2-4, 1-3 ACC)
• Louisville (3-3, 1-3 ACC)

ACC Coastal

• North Carolina (6-1, 3-0 ACC)
• Pittsburgh (4-2, 1-1 ACC)
• Georgia Tech (3-3, 2-1 ACC)
• Duke (4-3, 1-2 ACC)
• Miami (3-3, 1-1 ACC)
• Virginia Tech (2-5, 1-3 ACC)
• Virginia (2-4, 0-3 ACC)

Overall Power Rankings

1. Clemson
2. Wake Forest
3. Syracuse
4. NC State
5. FSU
6. North Carolina
7. Pittsburgh
8. Georgia Tech
9. Duke
10. Louisville
11. Miami
12. Virginia Tech
13. Virginia
14. Boston College

Parting Thoughts

I almost didn’t drop put Syracuse above FSU this week because the Orange struggled with an NC State team playing with a backup quarterback and had an entire week to prepare for him. However, we’ll see how good Syracuse is next week when they play Clemson. I think they lose by double-digits.

A lot of teams had bye-weeks, but Miami will play Duke next week in what should be an interesting game. Miami barely squeaked by a terrible Virginia Tech that Duke would probably roll.

The rest of next week’s schedule doesn’t feature many other matchups that mean anything in the grand scheme. Check back next week to see if I was right about Syracuse or not.