There’s no question that last season was a down year for the ACC as a whole as teams like Florida State fell off a cliff and Miami fell apart down the stretch. Despite that, the conference still managed to place two teams in the College Football Playoff with Clemson as the conference champion, and SMU, which snuck in with the final at-large bid.
The ACC will be hoping for another multi-bid year in the 12-team field, but the odds are certainly not in their favor compared to the powerhouse conferences like the Big Ten and SEC. At the moment, the conference appears to be a two or three horse race, but that does not mean a surprise team, as we saw with SMU last year, makes a run and finds their way into the bracket.
Let’s take a look at the odds for ACC teams to make the College Football Playoff this upcoming season.
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
Favorites
- Clemson (-130)
- Miami FL (+205)
- Louisville (+340)
- SMU (+370)
Sportsbooks are predicting the ACC to run through Clemson as the Tigers are near the top in the country in returning starters from an ACC Championship team a year ago. Dabo Swinney’s squad will certainly be tested outside of the conference though with matchups against LSU and South Carolina.
Miami made a massive offseason move in bringing in Carson Beck, but the question is will he be enough coming off an injury to replace Davey O’Brien Award winner Cam Ward, who single-handedly carried the Hurricanes through most of last season.
Louisville is also an extremely intriguing team at +340. The Cardinals brought in quarterback Miller Moss from USC and have a head coach in Jeff Brohm who should never be counted out. With an easier schedule for the Cardinals, I could definitely see them finishing with just one loss, and igniting a heated debate over a one-loss ACC team versus a two or three loss SEC/Big Ten team. SMU also looks like a strong contender once again with Kevin Jennings returning under center. The oddsmakers are giving SMU a decent chance to make the bracket once again, but a schedule that includes games against the three other teams in this category, along with two non-conference matchups against Power Four opponents, has their odds worse than some might expect.
Georgia Tech
- Georgia Tech (+760)
The Yellow Jackets get their own category because there is no other team that comes close to their odds range, which speaks to the steep drop off in the ACC. Georgia Tech is the definition frisky as a team that is near the top of the ACC in terms of returning production. Last year they turned heads by going 7-5 and recording two top-10 wins led by the dynamic backfield duo of quarterback Haynes King and running back Jamal Haynes, who are both back for this season.
LONGshots
- Duke (+1300)
- Florida State (+1300)
- North Carolina (+1400)
- Virginia Tech (+1400)
- North Carolina State (+1600)
- Pitt (+1800)
This is likely the category SMU would have fallen into prior to last season, so anything is possible. Florida State will feature interconference transfer Thomas Castellanos at quarterback, but Mike Norvell should just be hoping for any sort of improvement coming off a 2-win season. Manny Diaz will look to build on an impressive first season at Duke while their rival North Carolina at +1400 may be the worst odds Bill Belichick has ever had to win anything in quite some time. Also of note are the Pitt Panthers who are projected to return 14 starters from a team that started 7-0 before dropping six straight.
No Shot
- Syracuse (+2200)
- Cal (+2800)
- Virginia (+2800)
- Boston College (+3000)
- Wake Forest (+5500)
- Stanford (+8000)
This will likely be the only thought connecting these teams to the College Football Playoff all year. Five of them will be starting new quarterbacks, and only one (Syracuse) is coming off a winning regular season. At this point, forget the playoff, a bowl game appearance would be considered a successful season for these programs.