The first College Football Playoff rankings of 2026 gave the ACC a split-screen reality check: Miami is sitting at No. 1, but the rest of the league is having a rough time keeping pace.
The Hurricanes are unbeaten at 8-0 and opened the rankings in the top spot Tuesday night, with Georgia, Utah and Indiana right behind them. Wake Forest was the only other ACC team to crack the list, landing at No. 16.
That leaves the ACC with just two ranked teams, the fewest of any Power Four conference. The SEC placed 10 teams in the rankings, the Big Ten had six and the Big 12 had five. The SEC also owns five teams in the top 10, while the Big Ten and Big 12 each have two.
Miami has already handled the conference’s other ranked squad, beating Wake Forest 33-20 on the road. The Demon Deacons have since ripped off five straight wins and are second in the ACC standings at 5-1, trailing Miami’s 6-0 mark in league play.
Beyond those two, the numbers are ugly. Nine of the ACC’s 17 teams are at .500 or worse, which works out to 52.9% of the conference.
Five programs are below .500: Virginia at 4-5, Stanford at 4-5, California at 3-6, Florida State at 3-5 and Georgia Tech at 2-6. Four more teams - NC State, North Carolina, Boston College and Syracuse - are sitting at 4-4.
Only six ACC teams have reached six wins so far: Miami, Wake Forest, SMU, Virginia Tech, Duke and Pittsburgh. Clemson, one of the conference’s traditional powers, is 5-3 and unranked.
The coaching shakeup has already started. NC State fired Dave Doeren on Oct. 24 after a 3-4 start. The Wolfpack have gone 4-4 since then under interim coach Todd Goebbel, but the school is now looking for a new head coach after Doeren’s 14-season run.
Florida State made its own change on Nov. 1, dismissing Mike Norvell after the Seminoles fell to 3-5. Florida State won the ACC championship in 2023, but it has now missed back-to-back bowl games and is in danger of missing a third straight.
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