Clemson overwhelming choice to win another ACC football title
Clemson is the overwhelming choice, but not unanimous, to win the ACC title.
The Tigers picked up 170 of the 173 votes turned it at the ACC kickoff in Charlotte last week.
Clemson, 15-0 and national champions a year ago, has won four straight ACC titles. Syracuse, 10-3 overall last year, received two votes and Virginia, the choice to win the Coastal Division, received one vote to win the conference title.
There aren’t high expectations for the North Carolina schools. N.C. State, 9-4 last season, was picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic Division and Wake Forest, coming off of a 7-6 finish, was picked to finish sixth (out of seven teams).
On the Coastal side, Duke and North Carolina were picked to finish fifth and sixth, respectively. The Blue Devils, 8-5 in 2018, did pick up six votes to win the Coastal.
UNC, 1-7 in ACC play in each of the past two seasons, got one first-place vote in coach Mack Brown’s return.
All seven teams on the Coastal side got at least one first-place vote. Six different teams have won the Coastal title in the past six years. Virginia is the only the school that has not.
The Cavaliers, coming off of an 8-5 breakthrough under coach Bronco Mendenhall, received 82 first-place votes. It’s the first time the Cavaliers have been picked to win the Coastal title since the league went to a division format in 2005.
ACC Championship
1. Clemson 170
2. Syracuse 2
3. Virginia 1
Atlantic Division
(First place votes in parenthesis)
1. Clemson (171) – 1,209 points
2. Syracuse (2) – 913
3. Florida State – 753
4. N.C. State – 666
5. Boston College – 588
6. Wake Forest – 462
7. Louisville – 253
Coastal Division
1. Virginia (82) – 1,003 points
2. Miami (55) – 992
3. Virginia Tech (20) – 827
4. Pitt (8) – 691
5. Duke (6) –566
6. North Carolina (1) – 463
7. Georgia Tech (1) – 302
This story was originally published July 22, 2019 at 11:29 AM.
