Miami and Wake Forest continue to sit alone at the top of the ACC pecking order in Week 11, with both programs holding firm at No. 1 and No. 2 in the latest power rankings.
Miami remains the unanimous choice for first place, and the Canes still haven’t drawn a vote lower than No. 1 all season. Wake Forest, meanwhile, is locked into the No. 2 spot for the seventh straight week, and this is the fourth week in a row that the staff vote has been unanimous.
The Demon Deacons had an easy weekend to keep that hold steady, rolling past FCS Merrimack 77-0 to improve to 8-1 overall and 6-1 in ACC play. That result helped keep Wake in the same place, but the bigger movement came just behind them.
SMU nudged past Duke by a single point to move up to No. 4, while Louisville stayed put at No. 3.
That creates a major matchup this Saturday in Dallas, where No. 2 Wake Forest and No.
4 SMU meet in a game that could decide who stays in the hunt for the ACC Championship Game.
The rest of the rankings had their own small shifts and logjams. North Carolina and Pittsburgh are tied at No. 8, and Georgia Tech remains in the bottom spot for the third straight week.
A few teams are holding their ground after different kinds of weekends. Louisville stayed third after last week’s rise, while Duke slipped to fifth.
Virginia Tech, after beating Syracuse 18-13, is tied for seventh. NC State and Florida State also remain clustered in the middle of the table, with Florida State’s 31-24 win over NC State helping keep that group tight.
Further down, the rankings reflect a mix of bye weeks and results that didn’t move the needle much. Teams listed in the lower half include those coming off losses, including a 44-17 Georgia Tech defeat to Miami, a 51-28 Louisville win over Virginia Tech, and Duke’s 41-3 win over NC State. Wake Forest’s own 77-0 win over Merrimack was enough to keep the Deacs right behind Miami, but not enough to crack the top spot.
Each week, the nine-person editorial staff ranks all 17 ACC teams individually, then tallies the votes to produce the final list. This week’s rankings also note that eight ACC teams now have six or more wins, while one team has seven or more losses and is not bowl eligible.
Wake Forest’s next test comes Saturday, November 14, in Dallas against SMU. Kickoff is set for 12 pm ET, and the game will air on ESPN.
In Other News...
Former Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman Is Headed For A Very Different Spotlight
Sam Hartmans football path has already taken a few unexpected turns, from five seasons at Wake Forest to a stop at Notre Dame and then on to the Washington Commanders practice squad. Now the quarterback is stepping into a completely different kind of spotlight, one that has little to do with playbooks or pocket presence.
ABC has tapped Hartman to lead the next season of The Bachelor, with the 30th edition set to premiere in March. For a player still attached to an NFL roster, it is a notable detour and one that shifts the attention from training camp fields to prime-time television, with plenty of curiosity still hanging over how this latest chapter will play out. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Faces A Season-Shaping Test Against SMUs Dangerous Offense
Wake Forest heads into a pivotal regular-season matchup with SMU knowing the stakes reach well beyond one Saturday afternoon. With ACC Championship hopes still in play, this is the kind of game that can tilt a season one way or the other, and the Demon Deacons are staring at a Mustangs offense that has earned its reputation by making opponents defend every inch of the field.
The challenge starts with quarterback Kevin Jennings and running back Kendrick Raphael, but SMU also brings defensive pieces such as Marques White and Kilgore who can make life difficult in their own right. For Wake Forest, the margin for error is thin, and the result could end up shaping not just the conference race but the programs postseason outlook as well. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Keeps Winning But The Respect Still Isn't Coming
Wake Forest has spent the 2026 season doing the one thing that usually changes the conversation around a program: winning, and winning often. Under Jake Dickert, the Demon Deacons have taken a roster that had to replace key pieces from a year ago and still turned it into one of the more surprising stories in the sport, with Gio Lopez driving the offense and Carlos Hernandez giving him a dependable target on the outside. What makes the run stand out is how far it has gone beyond preseason expectations, even as the national spotlight has mostly looked elsewhere.
The frustration for Wake Forest is that the rsum has not translated into the kind of respect that typically follows this sort of start. National media attention has been light, and the College Football Playoff committee has not treated the Deacons like a team forcing its way into the picture. For a program that has clearly outperformed the projections attached to it in August, the next stretch feels less about proving it can keep winning and more about whether anyone outside Winston-Salem will finally start paying attention. [Read more 🡒]