Just crown Clemson as ACC champions already

The ACC looked like a two-team race before the season officially kicked off, but now with Syracuse laying an egg against Maryland, Clemson should coast to another ACC title.

In the words of Dennis Green, “You wanna crown them, then crown them!” We omitted the not safe for work words, but the message holds true. We’re crowning Clemson as the ACC champions in the first week of September. This conference race is over. It’s a wrap. Nothing more to see here, folks.

After Syracuse lost in a rout to Maryland, the only other ranked team in the ACC is Clemson, who puts their No. 1 ranking on the line at home vs. Texas A&M at the time of publishing.

Syracuse is on tap next week. The Orange was believed to be the only team with a remote chance of competing with Clemson. They beat them in 2017 and nearly pulled off the upset last year after Trevor Lawrence was injured in the game.

But with Syracuse folding like a cheap chair vs. Maryland, who is a mid-level Big Ten team, at best, the ACC has no chance of slowing down Clemson, so let’s just crown them.

Both the Orange and Tigers are set to do battle next week, but with Syracuse losing in such an embarrassing fashion, it’s hard to see them being a real test for Clemson. And for Clemson, who had essentially Syracuse and nobody else on their schedule to truly worry about, are going to waltz their way through the conference and right into a playoff spot.

Of course, that is assuming that Clemson can polish off the rest of a perfect season starting with a win over No. 12 Texas A&M. But for the top team in the nation, Clemson shouldn’t have any problems in the ACC in 2019, and even looking forward to games against North Carolina and Wake Forest may be tough, but shouldn’t be considered serious threats.

So for Clemson, if they beat Texas A&M today it may be the toughest matchup they’ll have the rest of the way, meaning the rest of the ACC can go home now because Clemson already has this conference wrapped up in Week 2.