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ACC Nation Staff @accnation –
You may have gotten a little taste of action this past weekend and bravo for you. But, the really good stuff comes out of the cabinet this week. With the ACC Labor Day weekend football kickoff beginning on Thursday and running through Monday it’s time for our college football power poll. As always, we include 14 conference teams plus Notre Dame in our weekly rankings. Each position is assigned points and our media guys vote each week based upon a team’s performance. We presented a Way-Too-Early version of the power poll along with some win/loss projections (and comments) at the advent of summer. Has much changed? Are we still ‘all in’ on our thoughts on team records? Will the 1-15 rankings we presented then hold up now?
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| RANK | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | CLEMSON | 105 |
| 2 | NOTRE DAME | 96 |
| 3 | NORTH CAROLINA | 89 |
| 4 | MIAMI | 76 |
| 5 | NC STATE | 69 |
| 6 | PITTSBURGH | 67 |
| 7 | BOSTON COLLEGE | 61 |
| 8 | VIRGINIA TECH | 57 |
| 9 | WAKE FOREST | 46 |
| 10 | VIRGINIA | 45 |
| 11 | GEORGIA TECH | 35 |
| 12 | FLORIDA STATE | 34 |
| 13 | LOUISVILLE | 31 |
| 14 | DUKE | 20 |
| 15 | SYRACUSE | 9 |
College Football Power Poll
It probably won’t surprise anyone that Clemson was ranked No. 1 in the week one power poll. The Tigers are, however, the only team receiving top marks across the board. Notre Dame did receive the next highest vote of confidence but not everyone is sold on the Irish being ranked No. 2. North Carolina is ranked a solid third. The Tar Heels are going to have to convince our voters that it’s not smoke and mirrors before they can move ahead of Notre Dame.
Another team that will have to ‘prove it’ is Miami. There are lots of things to like about this team going into the 2021 season and a few that left at least one voter lacking confidence in the Canes.
We’ve spoken about this next groups of teams that are lumped in the middle numerous times on ACC Nation Podcast. NC State, Pitt, Boston College and Virginia Tech are only separated by a few points in this poll. Lots of talent, lots of potential and lots of questions. Can one or more of these four break through?
There’s a similar logjam among the next five teams in the poll. Wake Forest and Virginia are inspiring the most confidence in this group. Georgia Tech, Florida State and Louisville are bringing up the rear with each continuing to build toward the future. When will the latter three turn the corner?
Sadly, there’s always a team or two at the bottom of the conference. Often, they seemed mired in some mess of their own making. Both Duke and Syracuse absolutely need to see some kind of positive forward progression this season to keep their coaches off the hot seat. Fair to middling programs are no longer acceptable.
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