ACC Power Rankings 2016: Week 1

Here’s a look at how the 14 ACC teams rank entering after Week One’s results in the 2016 season.

Week One of the college football season is in the books, and the ACC had their share of ups and downs when all 14 games involving league teams were over. Florida State made a statement with their win over Ole Miss in arguably the game of the week, while Clemson held on in a much closer than expected game against Auburn and North Carolina blew a late lead against Georgia to ruin the chance at a conference sweep.

Along the way, there was a top individual performance from Louisville’s Lamar Jackson to go along with some solid team showings by N.C. State and Miami (against FCS foes, but still). Teams like Virginia and Wake Forest didn’t help the conference out, though, as the Cavaliers got upset by FCS opponent Richmond and the Deacons scored just seven points in their win over Tulane.

Needless to say, the power rankings in the conference changed from last week to now as we learned more about each of the ACC’s 14 teams from their week one results. Here’s a look at our rankings following week one’s action coming to an end.

It isn’t so much that UVa lost their first game of the season in the debut of their new head coach — it’s the fact that they looked REALLY bad against an FCS opponent in Richmond. The Spiders, quite frankly, had no business being in that game and now have bragging rights in the commonwealth for a whole year at least.

It was so close. The Eagles were under a minute away from getting their first conference win since the 2014 season and it all slipped away thanks to a freshman running back from Georgia Tech. Now, the Eagles have to wait until the 17th for their next chance at finally getting an ACC victory.

Look, I get that a win is a win and that is the point of the game. At the same time, defeating Tulane by a final score of 7-3 when you are the home team just shows that you are nowhere near good enough to compete with the rest of the conference this season.

It was an emotional moment for the Panthers when running back James Conner, cancer-free after months of treatment, got two touchdowns in their win. That being said, it was also against FCS opponent Villanova, so you have to take it with a slight grain of salt.

It was a trend this week in the ACC, as many of the teams took on the FCS’s finest – well, at least teams that play in that level – as the Orange went out and got a convincing win over…Colgate.

Next: No. 9 to No. 5