College football roundtable: Is UNC really the favorite in the Coastal Division?

The team that committed three turnovers in the red zone in an ugly loss against South Carolina at the start of the season now seems to be the favorite to win the ACC’s Coastal Division. Friday night lights are here to stay, by the way. And about pretty stadiums?

Your favorite college football roundtable discussion, featuring N&O college reporters Andrew Carter, Joe Giglio and Laura Keeley, and columnist Luke DeCock, is back for more:

Q: You might have seen that ESPN’s FPI (Football Power Index) has made North Carolina the definitive favorite in the Coastal Division. Do you agree or disagree and, either way, do you see the Coastal being decided on Tobacco Road this season?

Andrew Carter (UNC beat reporter): After winning at Georgia Tech in what arguably looked like the Tar Heels’ most difficult conference game, it makes sense that UNC has assumed the role of divisional favorite. The schedule helps, too, in that UNC gets Duke and Miami at home.

Pitt and Miami should be factors in the division race, too, but at this point, approaching mid-October, it does indeed look like UNC and Duke have the best chance of winning it. One thing is certain: Georgia Tech, which still has to play Clemson and Florida State, appears out of the race already.

Joe Giglio (N.C. State beat reporter): The Coastal race always comes down to the schedule. Miami, which has yet to play a conference game, has been written off by the ESPN computer because it plays both Florida State and Clemson. UNC, Duke and Pitt avoid both Atlantic powers, hence the computer’s favorable rating of their chances.

UNC kept Duke out of the championship game last year, maybe their meeting this year in Chapel Hill will be for a ticket to Charlotte.

Laura Keeley (Duke beat reporter): I think it’s a three-horse race between Duke, UNC and Pitt. All three have the good fortune of not crossing over with Florida State or Clemson from the Atlantic Division. It’s hard for me to anoint UNC the clear favorite, just because the Tar Heels have been a bit inconsistent within games on both offense and defense, and they managed to lose to the worst team in the SEC. So we’ll see. As for Duke, it’s hard to imagine that the Blue Devils will keep winning games without an offense. You’d figure that will become an issue at some point.

Luke DeCock (columnist): I’m not fully sold on North Carolina yet, not after watching the season-opening defeat to what is clearly an extraordinarily mediocre South Carolina team, but the Tar Heels clearly have some momentum. Since I’m unimpressed with both Virginia Tech and Miami, and Georgia Tech is cooked, I would expect the division title to come down to Duke-Carolina in Chapel Hill on Nov. 7.

Q: N.C. State traveled to Virginia Tech for some Friday night football action this week. What’s your take on Friday night games? Is it acceptable for the ACC or does it make the league look MACish?

AC: I’m not a fan of Friday night college football outside of special circumstances – like the Friday after Thanksgiving, perhaps. It does seem gimmicky and like something more befitting of a lesser conference that needs more exposure.

I get it: ESPN controls everything. TV money controls everything. So teams will play when ESPN wants them to play. That said, the ACC should have fought this for a variety of reasons, including the fact that Friday nights around here belong to high school football – as it should be.

JG: I’m not crazy about Friday games but I can understand why the ACC agreed to them. ESPN puts just about every SEC game in primetime on Saturday nights. The ACC gets one or two a month, if they’re lucky (and that includes Notre Dame’s trip to Clemson last week).

Night games, in general are better for fans, so there’s that.

LK: I think Friday night games are perfectly fine. That qualifies as a weekend game. And I bet fans would rather attend Friday night games instead of Saturday noon games. Nighttime football is the best football, whether it’s on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

LD: I don’t like college games on Friday nights, but the ACC is going to do whatever makes ESPN happy. The network pays all the bills. If that means football on Friday nights, 10:30 p.m. basketball starts, playing the ACC tournament in Beirut, the use of John Swofford’s house for the ESPN holiday party – what ESPN wants, ESPN will get.

Q: Duke reporter Laura Keeley will cover a game this weekend in one of the most scenic environments in the country at Army’s Michie Stadium. What’s the most picturesque stadium you’ve been to?

AC: Traveled to Provo, Utah, for a game at BYU’s LaVell Edwards Stadium in 2009 and it remains the most beautiful setting I’ve experienced for a college football game. Surrounded by mountains and gorgeous scenery, it looks from the press box like you’re staring out into a postcard. You could do well there.

JG: The soaring pines at Kenan Stadium, of course.

LK: That award has to go to the Sun Bowl, which has a beautiful desert mountain backdrop. The stadium was literally carved out of the side of a mountain, and the natural environment surrounding it is very cool. Definitely a perk of that bowl trip (though it might not balance out the risk that comes from trying to use an airport in the middle of nowhere. American Airlines canceled my flight to Dallas and tried to rebook me on a flight that went through Phoenix – look at a map – and landed in Dallas two days later. Needless to say, that was unacceptable, and the situation was rectified).

LD: There’s nothing like watching the flyover from atop the press box at Air Force’s Falcon Stadium. It feels like you’re looking down on a stealth bomber. The military academies figured out picturesque a long time ago.

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 10:18 AM with the headline "College football roundtable: Is UNC really the favorite in the Coastal Division?."