When it comes to ranking college football our eyes are always on Week 3 and beyond. The proof is in the pudding after the final score is posted this coming Saturday. Though our ACC Nation rankings of teams within the conference isn’t here yet there is plenty to talk about and it won’t hold us back from referencing the national polls.

The SP+ and FPI will drop in the next few days and that will provide a better overall view of the performance of conference football teams. There are plenty of numbers to crunch in this journey. As you can see below, Miami, SMU, Louisville and Virginia populate the national boards while Virginia Tech, Duke, Pitt, Clemson and Wake Forest all grabbed enough attention to place them just outside the Top 25.

AP TOP 25 AFCA TOP 25

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What do we actually know at this point? We’re only two or three games in and a significant chunk of the resumes are still falling into the ‘padding’ games. Out of respect for teams are in the pay to play category and sacrifice themselves on the field we’ll abstain from using the old football term of cupcake.

Let’s look at a few on the list. Miami and FAMU, UVA and Norfolk St, Louisville and Villanova, NC State and Richmond and Virginia Tech’s entire slate tells us almost nothing other than Coach Franklin has a functioning squad on the field.

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From what we have seen and it’s easy to prove statistically is that Miami, who was a Preseason No. 1 is still sitting firmly in that spot. What may be a bit surprising is the performance of Virginia right out of the gate against NC State and Duke pulling out a win over B1G Ten Illinois. The SMU win over Florida State, 27-24 certainly solidified the Preseason No. 2 football ranking.

Football – Who’s Next?

These next four teams are to be closely watched. North Carolina, despite all of the nonsense that fans hope is in the past has pulled out wins over TCU in Dublin (never discount a travel win of that nature) and ETSU. There’s a hint of a solid defense in Chapel Hill but some tweaks are still needed on offense. Pitt is 2-0 after a 12-7 win over UCF. The defense is there but why do we see the same rollercoaster offense year after year…even with new coordinators?

Louisville may have lost to Ole Miss but they returned with a vengeance against Villanova. The Cardinals appear to have the juice. And our fourth team in this group is Wake Forest. Defense has always been a mystery meat in Winston-Salem and it appears to be making the rounds again. The Deacs are definitely in our Tier 2 and being among the top 8 teams in the ACC isn’t a bad place to be.

ACC Nation’s football composite preseason top 3, Miami, SMU and Louisville are holding up while No. 4 Clemson is underperforming and No. 5 Virginia Tech is untested. The media poll’s Clemson and Georgia Tech bets are aging worst, while the two genuine risers, Virginia and Duke, were nowhere near anyone’s top 5. Welcome to the ACC.