Heading into 2026, the ACC might be the most compelling league in college football. The Big Ten has the last three national titles and the SEC still carries the brand power, but the ACC has the kind of week-to-week tension that keeps the whole conference worth watching. The top end is loaded with intrigue, the bottom is crowded with pressure points, and a few of the biggest names in the sport are walking into seasons that could define their future.
Miami is the favorite in most preseason conversations, but even that comes with a catch. The Hurricanes have the talent to justify the hype, and the roster includes Darian Mensah, Malachi Toney, and Damon Wilson II. Still, Mario Cristobal’s teams have a habit of slipping when nobody expects it during the regular season, and turnover in the trenches could be the thing that opens the door for an upset.
That Miami buzz also comes with a reminder of what happened last season at Duke. The Blue Devils won the ACC Championship, but their run gets overshadowed by Miami’s College Football Playoff push.
Duke’s success was built around quarterback Darian Mensah, whom the program made the highest paid player in the sport after his rise at Tulane, and star wide receiver Cooper Barkate. Miami then pulled both players away, using the same kind of blueprint Duke had just ridden to the top of the league.
Now Duke has to figure out life after both of them, and the timing of those losses wasn’t ideal. With the Transfer Portal cycle already deep into its run, the options were limited.
Walker Eget is the answer for now, and he arrives with a shot to start right away after throwing for 3,051 yards and 17 touchdowns at San Jose State last year. The production hasn’t exactly jumped off the page, but Manny Diaz’s staff has already shown it can identify the right kind of quarterback, and the move for Mensah gives this one real upside.
The pressure is even heavier in Chapel Hill, where the second year of the Bill Belichick era is one of the biggest storylines in the conference. Belichick’s move into college football at North Carolina was one of the most stunning coaching developments in recent memory, and the early excitement vanished fast after TCU punched the Tar Heels in the mouth on the first drive of the season. This offseason has been quieter than the chaos that followed, but the concerns haven’t gone anywhere.
North Carolina also dealt with another unsettling development when General Manager and longtime Bill Belichick friend Mike Lombardi was placed on administrative leave, with few details made public. On top of that, the roster has turned over heavily again. If Belichick can’t show clear progress, North Carolina will have every reason to make a change.
Florida State is in a similar kind of spotlight, only the fall has been even steeper. Mike Norvell’s program went from 12-0 in the regular season and an ACC title in 2023 to a stretch that has completely changed the conversation.
Jordan Travis’ injury kept the Seminoles out of the College Football Playoff, and the program has never really recovered. Over the last two seasons, Florida State is just 7-17 overall and 3-13 in ACC play.
That kind of collapse puts Norvell in a brutal spot entering 2026. Another rough year could make him the first coach fired, and once again he’s leaning on a heavy transfer haul in hopes of getting the Seminoles pointed in the right direction.
Then there’s Clemson, where the question isn’t whether the expectations are high - it’s which version of Dabo Swinney shows up. The Tigers entered last season with championship-level hopes and finished 7-6 overall and 4-4 in ACC play. Since making the College Football Playoff in 2020, Clemson has only been back once, and that ended in a first-round loss in the 2024 expanded format.
Even so, Swinney has still put together strong results over the last few years, going 47-20 since the 2021 season. But another down year would force a bigger conversation, whether that means Clemson looks for a coach better suited to the current era or Swinney decides to move on to another job or something outside of college coaching altogether.
In Other News...
FSU Coaches Are Suddenly Buzzing About A New Quarterback Option
Malachi Marshall has spent his first stretch at Florida State doing all the little things coaches want from a quarterback trying to carve out a role. The junior has leaned into the transition by building relationships, putting in extra work in the weight room and digging into film, all while keeping his focus on fall camp. Quarterbacks coach Austin Tucker has noticed the approach, and it fits the kind of steady, day-to-day climb that can matter for a player arriving with a decorated junior college rsum.
Marshall came to Tallahassee after leading Iowa Western to the 2025 NJCAA Division I national championship and collecting a stack of honors along the way, so the talent level is not the question. What makes his situation worth watching is the timing, with NCAA eligibility rules potentially in flux and every rep in camp carrying extra weight for a quarterback room trying to sort out its pecking order. For now, Marshall is simply trying to maximize each day, which is usually how a new option starts turning into a real one. [Read more 🡒]
Florida State Just Took Another Swing At Fixing Its Secondary
Florida States latest move to reshape its defensive backfield comes with another portal addition, this time targeting a cornerback with multiple seasons still available. Karson Hobbs arrives after spending his first stretch at Notre Dame, where he got into 16 games and made one start, giving the Seminoles another experienced option as Mike Norvell continues to overhaul a defense that has seen major turnover this offseason.
The secondary has been one of the clearest areas of concern in Tallahassee, especially after the portal took a toll on the back end and left Florida State searching for answers at corner and safety. Hobbs fits the kind of swing the staff has been making, bringing a fresh body into a room that has already added four defensive backs among the 24 portal newcomers, with the bigger question now being how quickly those pieces can settle in and stabilize the unit. [Read more 🡒]
Ashlynd Barker Sounds Convinced Florida State Can Finally Be Different
The first day of preseason practice is usually too early to draw sweeping conclusions, but Ashlynd Barker did not sound like a player easing into August. The Florida State safety came away encouraged by what he saw from the Seminoles offseason work, pointing to a group that has come together quickly and, in his view, is carrying itself without the kind of ego that can slow a team down before the real work even starts.
Barker is also in line for a bigger responsibility in Tony Whites 3-3-5 defense, with the rover spot opening up after Earl Little Jr. transferred to Ohio State. It is the kind of change that can sharpen the edge of a secondary, and it puts Barker in a position to help define what this defense becomes in 2026, even if the true test will not arrive until the season starts to reveal whether all that early confidence has any staying power. [Read more 🡒]