ACC Power Rankings, Week 3: Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech vie for top spot

Sep 12, 2015; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers safety Jayron Kearse (1) celebrates after making an interception during the first half against the Appalachian State Mountaineers at Clemson Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

ACC Power Rankings for the third week of the 2015 college football season sees three teams competing for the top spot.

The top of the rankings stayed pretty firm paralleled to the general consensus, and not too much could have changed with the teams that each were facing.

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• #21 Duke Football: 3 takeaways from home against Northwestern
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Georgia Tech entertained Tulane, Florida State hosted South Florida, which was the best game at the top, and Clemson took care of business against Michigan killers Appalachian State. All of which posted victories of 20 points and more.

On the other hand, the presence of a bad loss was at the very least. Louisville may be the only possessor of that title, losing to Houston 34-31, although Houston isn’t exactly a slouch at this level.

There was only one conference game this week, even though I desperately want to include Notre Dame as a member of the conference, kills me not to. Syracuse and Wake Forest were that only meeting this week and we saw Syracuse pull out a nice win to the tune of 30-17.

As a surprise, Virginia presented itself as a true competitor against the Fighting Irish, who unfortunately lost promising quarterback Malik Zaire to the season with a fractured ankle. Irish defeated the Cavaliers in what could have been the best game the conference had, 34-27. Good showing by Virginia quarterback, Matt Johns, but we will get into that here shortly.

The schedules get a bit tougher this week and could prove to be the early tipping point in the season for many teams (a short preview of each will be included in the rankings).We are really going to see some teams set themselves apart, either for the good or the bad, and it will be crucial for the conference to have a good showing to keep momentum with the Pac 12, SEC, and Big 12.

**Because no power rankings were completed before this week for the ACC, all “last ranked” numbers were gathered through ESPN** 

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