Week 12 in the ACC offered a little clarity about which two teams will make the ACCCG. Georgia Tech avoided a colossal loss and major chaos by coming from behind to defeat the lowly Boston College Eagles. Virginia continues to control its destiny with a win over Duke, and that Duke loss decreases its chances to make the ACCCG. Pittsburgh got a dose of reality against Notre Dame in a blowout loss at home. However, that loss doesn’t hurt the Panthers in the ACC standings since it was a non-conference game.
Here are my updated ACC Power Rankings through 12 weeks:
- Georgia Tech (9-1, 6-1 ACC)
- Pittsburgh (7-3, 5-1 ACC)
- SMU (8-3, 6-1 ACC)
- Virginia (9-2, 6-1 ACC)
- Louisville (7-3, 4-3 ACC)
- Miami (8-2, 4-2 ACC)
- Duke (5-5, 4-2 ACC)
- NC State (5-5, 2-4 ACC)
- Wake Forest (7-3, 4-3 ACC)
- Virginia Tech (3-7, 2-4 ACC)
- California (6-4, 3-3 ACC)
- Clemson (5-5, 4-4 ACC)
- Syracuse (3-7, 1-6 ACC)
- North Carolina (4-6, 1-4 ACC)
- Stanford (3-7, 2-5 ACC)
- FSU (5-5, 2-5 ACC)
- Boston College (1-10, 0-7 ACC)
We probably don't need to re-rank all these teams at this point, as only a handful have a shot at making the ACCCG.
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Week 13 should be interesting with several impactful games. Louisville can play the spoiler role when it takes on SMU. An SMU loss would hurt them, but they own the tie-breaker over Miami. Pittsburgh traveling to play Georgia Tech is a MASSIVE game. Pittsburgh beating the Yellow Jackets would put them in the driver’s seat, as they play Miami the following week. Miami travels to play a bad Virginia Tech team, but they need Virginia and Georgia Tech to lose.
The only problem is that Virginia has one ACC game remaining against Virginia Tech next week. If SMU beats Louisville, they could make the ACCCG. It’ll be interesting to see how this week shakes out.