ACC Power Rankings: Miami survives Virginia Tech & major movements below after upsets
By Scott Roche
Week 5 of the season had multiple storylines that people will discuss for some time. It started Friday night with the overturned touchdown in South Florida when there appeared not to be "undisputable evidence" to overturn a touchdown on the final play for Virginia Tech in a 38-34 loss to Miami.
As if that was wild enough, then came Saturday. Boston College, minus quarterback Thomas Castellanos, rallied in the second half to avoid an upset to Western Kentucky. At the same time, North Carolina State took down a tough Northern Illinois team at home, 24-17. Louisville suffered their first loss at Notre Dame, while Duke had a wild second-half rally to stun North Carolina at home. Clemson beat Stanford and SMU rolled over Florida State at home by 26 points. Syracuse took care of Holy Cross in the non-conference game and Wake Forest's struggles continued with a loss at home to Louisiana.
All of those results caused some tweaks in the latest edition of the ACC Football Power Rankings through five weeks.
Week 5 ACC Football Power Rankings
Rank | Team | Record | Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|
1. | Miami | 5-0 | 1 |
2. | Clemson | 3-1 | 3 |
3. | Boston College | 4-1 | 4 |
4. | SMU | 4-1 | 8 |
5. | Duke | 5-0 | 6 |
6. | Pittsburgh | 4-0 | 5 |
7. | Syracuse | 3-1 | 7 |
8. | Louisville | 3-1 | 2 |
9. | California | 3-1 | 9 |
10. | Georgia Tech | 3-2 | 10 |
11. | Virginia | 3-1 | 11 |
12. | NC State | 3-2 | 13 |
13. | Stanford | 2-2 | 12 |
14, | Virginia Tech | 2-3 | 15 |
15. | North Carolina | 3-2 | 15 |
16. | Florida State | 1-4 | 16 |
17. | Wake Forest | 1-3 | 17 |
Starting at the bottom, Wake Forest had an opportunity to move up, but an ugly non-conference loss at home allowed FSU, which continues to struggle, to stay above them. UNC's loss could cause Mack Brown to retire early, while the Hokies played better and were more prepared this week, but we need to see it again at Stanford next weekend.
Stanford hung with Clemson for a bit while NC State beat a Northern Illinois team at home that went into South Bend and knocked off the Irish earlier this month. California will host College GameDay and Miami this weekend, BC has an interesting trip to Virginia while Louisville, coming off a loss at Notre Dame, hosts a dangerous SMU team, and watch out for Duke in Year 1 of Manny Diaz. College football baby!
feed