#12 Virginia Tech comes away with an Orange Bowl Trophy after a 31-24 win over #24 SMU, the ACC’s first Orange Bowl Title.

Another season has come and gone so quickly. The ACC finished a pedestrian 5-6 in Bowl Season with a 2-3 Playoff record as a part of that. Solid season for sure by the ACC but they are still looking for that illustrious National Title, but for now let’s get to the rankings.

1.) Georgia Tech– 13-3 (8-1), National Runner-Up/ACC Champions, defeated #8 NC State 34-20 in National Quarterfinals and #5 Buffalo 21-17 in National Semifinals, lost to #2 Colorado State 45-21 in the National Championship III. Georgia Tech fell just short of their goal of a National Championship but don’t let that distract you from the fact they had the best regular season of all-time and probably the 2nd best season of any team ever, and yes that includes all three National Champions. Georgia Tech will enter S4 as the prohibitive favorites to repeat as ACC Champions.

2. Virginia- 9-4 (6-2), National Quarterfinalist, lost to #2 Colorado State 55-17. Virginia was the first unfortunate victim of the buzzsaw by the name of Colorado State. Largest loss in Playoff history isn’t the greatest way to end the season but they have to be proud of the run to end the season including a 30 point win over Orange Bowl Champs and Rivals Virginia Tech. In other news, their coach suddenly retired this offseason and will be replaced by ULL’s HC who went 8-5 there so it’ll be interesting to see where this team ends up next season.

3. Virginia Tech– 10-3 (5-3), Orange Bowl Champions, defeated #24 SMU 31-24. Virginia Tech ended their season on a positive note after a pair of embarrassing losses to Pitt and UVA to close the regular season and miss the playoffs. ACC Coastal Play ended up costing VT this year. In-Division Record: 3-3, Every other game: 7-0. Virginia Tech should be expected to be competing once again next season in but can they take that next step next season.

4. NC State– 9-5 (5-4), National Quarterfinalist/ACC Atlantic Champs, lost to #1 Georgia Tech 34-20. NC State’s season was a success overall as they made their 3rd ACC Title game in a row BUT, they just could not get over that hump. Three chances to beat Georgia Tech and they couldn’t win once. In order to be a true contender they are going to have to be able to get wins over the GT’s of the FCFB world. Still heavy favorites to take home a 4th Atlantic Title in a row.

5. Boston College– 8-5 (4-4), defeated Arkansas State 28-21 in the Sun Bowl. Boston College finished the season strong winning their final 3 games to fit right in with the Boston College stereotype of being a solid win for good teams and just a loss for bad teams. Can’t seem to break that mold one way or the other and will probably be projected to do it yet again next season.

6.) Syracuse– 7-6 (4-4), defeated Ole Miss 16-0 in the Hawaii Bowl. All things considered Syracuse has to be satisfied with their season even if they cooled down late. They got to take a trip to Hawaii and came away with a Bowl win and winning season. Syracuse will probably be projected to finish middle of the road in the Atlantic yet again.

7.) Duke– 6-7 (5-3), lost to Florida 29-21 in the Citrus Bowl. This Duke program is going in all the wrong directions. Decreasing win totals each season from 9 to 8 to 6 is not good. What is even worse is how they finished this season 1-5 after their upset win over GT and that one win was a 3-0 win over Wake Forest which…isn’t exactly good. They’ve got to bounce back next season or they may have to start thinking about a coaching change.

8.) Louisville– 5-7 (5-3). This Louisville team was one of the biggest shocks of early S3 starting 4-2 with a win over UVA…then they regressed to what we thought they’d be losing 5 of their last 6 and blowing a chance to play for an ACC Title. They will probably be projected towards the bottom of the ACC again with how they finished the season.

9.) Clemson– 5-8 (4-4), lost to Washington State 31-14 in the Cure Bowl. The enigma of Clemson is running strong still. Puts up some of the best fights against VT and GT of any team all year and beating NCSU yet losing to teams like Louisville and SCar. Expect more of the same next year going near .500 and pulling off a massive upset in the middle of the year.

10.) Miami– 6-7 (4-4), lost to Michigan 45-41 in the Pinstripe Bowl. Miami is slowly building up a solid program here. Increasing win totals each season from 3 to 4 to 6. Their next step is finding a defensive identity that isn’t sucking. If they can do that, they could make some noise next year in the ACC.

11.) Florida State– 5-7 (3-5). A 1-4 start doomed FSU’s season early on and while they heated up after that, it wasn’t enough to make a bowl which they’ve failed to do all 3 seasons. Something has to change in Tallahassee if they want to make any noise next season in the ACC.

12.) North Carolina– 4-8 (2-6). Probably the team who underachieved the most this season after hiring VT’s former coach after a 9-4 season couldn’t bring the same success to UNC. Although at least some of that is due to a tough schedule with 5 Top 50 games but UNC couldn’t even pull out one even though they had some great chances such as @ VT.

13.) Pittsburgh– 3-9 (1-7). Even though Pitt won only 1 ACC game, they picked a hell of a game to do it with a 42-21 road win @ Virginia Tech almost single-handedly costing Virginia Tech a playoff bid, but that wasn’t enough to keep the coach around as he retired after the season and have hired a D2 coach with ties to another ACC school, Virginia Tech. They want to return to their former glory of S2 but that might take some time.

14.) Wake Forest, 2-10 (1-7). Wake Forest was just awful this year. We thought last year was bad but oh boy were we not prepared for this. Neither was Wake as they have made a change up top firing their former coach and replacing him with yet another coach with ties to Virginia Tech in Mississippi State’s interim Head Coach for the back half of the season. Might be able to jump start the program.