It is nearing the end of July and we are just 43 days away from kickoff. Unfortunately, these are the dog days of summer that seem to pass by real slow in anticipation of the football season. However, the good news is that today I'll be previewing the ACC Atlantic Division and make a prediction of who will finish where in the division.
Last Season:
Florida State won the Atlantic Division in 2010 thanks to Maryland defeating NC State in the final week of the season. While the Seminoles were celebrating a victory against arch-rival Florida Gators, Maryland pulled off a 38-31 win against the Wolfpack and gave the Seminoles the division title. Prior to the final week, FSU was locked in with a 6-2 final ACC record. NC State was 5-2 while Maryland was 4-3. An NC State victory would have matched their record with Florida State's record and NC State would have won the division due to the head-to-head tie breaker. However, NC State lost and FSU won it's first division championship since 2005.
Each of the six teams in the Atlantic Division play each other every season in addition to three teams from the Coastal Division, making a total of eight ACC games per season. Among the three Coastal Divison games, one of the matchups remains the same every season (i.e. Florida State and Miami play each other every year). The other two games rotate from year to year. This is important because depending on the two "floating" teams from the other division, it can set up an easy conference schedule or a hard one. Only the ACC games matter in conference standings, not non-conference games. So the FSU-Oklahoma game won't affect the conference standings.
Predicting 2011
FSU is lucky enough to draw both Virginia and Duke from the Coastal Division. Those two teams, in addition to Wake Forest, are the worst teams in the ACC so that'll definitely benefit the Seminoles. My prediction is that FSU will win the division and I will go out on a limb and say FSU will finish with an 8-0 conference record this season.
Maryland and Clemson will finish #2 and #3 in the divison. Maryland will lose to Miami and Florida State while Clemson will lose to Florida State and Virginia Tech. Therefore, the tie breaker will occur when the two teams meet on October 15th in Maryland. I believe Maryland will win that game simply because former Clemson QB Kyle Parker left for the MLB and Maryland will have homefield advantage. It'll be another year or two before Clemson makes a run at the division title again.
Boston College and NC State will battle it out for 4th place. NC State would have been my #2 pick if star QB Russell Wilson didn't transfer to Wisconsin over the summer. However, given that the Wolfpack must replace him, the 2011 season will be a down one. Since Boston College has to play at Virginia Tech and at Miami this year, I'm predicting NC State finished 4th and Boston College finishes 5th.
That leaves Wake Forest as the last place team in the ACC Atlantic Division once again. Last season they finished with a 1-7 conference record.
Key ACC Games for the Atlantic Division
Miami at Maryland, week 1
FSU at Clemson, week 4
Clemson at Maryland, week 7
Maryland at FSU, week 8
Predicted Standings
1)Florida State
2)Maryland
3)Clemson
4)NC State
5)Boston College
6)Wake Forest
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