Yep, readers, you're right again.
Preseason ACC football predictions by the media have been fairly worthless of late.
That fact was pointed out to me in numerous messages Thursday from ACC fans who remembered that, just one year ago, the preseason media poll had Florida State finishing first in the Atlantic Division and Virginia Tech first in the Coastal.
At season's end, Georgia Tech defeated Clemson in the league championship. Each was picked to finish second in its respective division. FSU wound up third in the Atlantic and Virginia Tech second in the Coastal.
Similar off-target picks have occurred regularly since the ACC first began the preseason poll in 1976.
Ever since the ACC went to divisional play in 2005, the voting proved accurate only once. That was in '05, when FSU (Atlantic) and Virginia Tech (Coastal) were picked first, finished that way and ended with the Seminoles winning the first league title game (as predicted).
Other than that, there has not been a perfecta. In 2006, it turned out to be a regular mess with preseason divisional favorites FSU and Miami finishing fifth and fourth, respectively, in their divisions.
This year's favorites, by wide margins, are FSU and Virginia Tech. The Hokies are a solid pick to win the title game.
North Carolina, a likely preseason top-20 national pick, finished fourth in the Coastal vote.
The preseason vote was substantially more accurate in the days before the ACC expanded to 12 schools.
From 1976 through 2004, the preseason favorite finished first or tied for first 19 times.
Granted, most of those votes were no-brainers for FSU, which was picked first and finished first or in a first-place tie 11 times from the school's first season in the conference (1992) through 2003.
But some of the preseason votes were surprisingly on the mark - N.C. State in 1979, UNC in 1980 and Maryland in 1985.
There were big misreads in 1986 (Maryland picked No. 1, finished No. 5), 1992 (Clemson picked No. 2 behind FSU, finished No. 7) and 2002 (Virginia picked No. 8, finished tied for second).
On individual awards, records are less complete.
Last year, Georgia Tech running back Jonathan Dwyer was the preseason choice for player of the year by a close margin over Clemson runner/returner C.J.Spiller.
In the postseason vote, Spiller won easily, with Yellow Jackets quarterback Joshua Nesbitt finishing second in the voting.
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