Editor’s note: Part of a continuing series examining the Power 5 and top Group of 5 teams for the 2019 college football season.



On December 1, 2018, Pitt took the field to face Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. It was both momentous — the Panthers’ first appearance in the title game since joining the league — and also the perfect depiction of the state of their division. Pitt became the sixth different representative of the Coastal in the title game in the past six years. Clemson beat Pitt, 42-10, and went on to win a national championship.



Pitt reached the ACC title game with a 7-5 record, which means two at-times contradictory things: 1) Pitt took a significant step forward in Year 4 under Pat Narduzzi, and 2) the Coastal remains college football’s messiest and most unpredictable division. It means something that Pitt won it, but it doesn’t quite mean that Pitt is at all close to usurping...