ACC Preseason Media Poll Analysis

The preseason media poll for the 2018-2019 football season has been released, and in a shocking turn of events, the media continues to sleep on Dave Clawson and Wake Forest.

Looking at this poll, obviously the first thing that jumps out at me is the two division winners. The media has both Clemson and Miami repeating as division champs and playing each other in the championship game in Charlotte. That makes a lot of sense, seeing that Clemson has become a borderline dynasty juggernaut and Miami is coming off a 10-3 season (although they are also coming off a 3 game losing streak).

Let’s look at some of the predictions. On the Atlantic side, after Clemson, who should obviously be at the top, the media has FSU making a quick turnaround after finishing 6th in the division last season. I know they are getting Francois back, but with a new coach coming in and implementing a whole new system, I would probably have FSU third and NC State second.

Moving on to the elephant in the room, the media has picked Wake Forest to finish second to last in the division, below Boston College and Louisville. I can maybe understand Boston College, seeing that AJ Dillon is an absolute monster on the ground, but I firmly believe we will finish the season above Louisville. The Cardinals finished 4-4 in the conference last season and are now missing a starting QB who accounted for 45 of their 64 touchdowns. That is some locker room material right there.

It seems most everyone is in agreement that Syracuse is going to finish last in the division this season.

Moving over to the Coastal division briefly, the order seems about right in my opinion. Miami should win the division with VT and GT following closely behind. UVA seems destined to finish last again with Duke, UNC, and Pitt, fighting for what’s left.

What I really want to point out about the Coastal side is that Duke and UNC both received votes to win the division, which seems baffling to me.

Of course, one of those is probably the same person who voted for Duke to win the ACC championship game last season and Daniel Jones to win player of the year. But at least Duke won 7 games last season. UNC won a single conference game last season and finished 3-9 with wins over Pitt, WCU, and Old Dominion. To think that they are going to somehow put it together and win the Coastal this year is asinine.

At the end of the day, I’m not actually mad about any of this; the preseason media poll means absolutely nothing. Predicting what will happen over the course of a 12 game season before the season has even started is insanely difficult, so it’s no wonder it’s never very accurate. Sometimes you pick a team to come in dead last and they end up winning the whole conference.

Where do you think Wake Forest will finish the season?