The ACC might want to be a bit more careful in who they invite next into the conference.
SMU, Cal and Stanford were brought into the ACC fold in 2024. While Cal and Stanford, for the most part, have been hospitable, SMU clearly has not.
SMU improved to 3-0 in the ACC and is now 11-0 all-time in ACC regular-season play with Saturday’s win over the reigning league champions, Clemson.
Less than a year after a tough 34-31 loss in the ACC Championship, the Mustangs defeated the Tigers 35-24 in Death Valley.
The win moves SMU to 5-2 overall, and SMU now has the nation’s longest regular-season conference winning streak.
With Miami’s loss to Louisville, SMU became just one of three unbeaten teams in the ACC, along with Georgia Tech and Virginia.
Before anyone pencils in the Mustangs for Charlotte, please take a peek at their remaining league schedule.
SMU travels to Wake Forest on Saturday and will host both Miami and Louisville before the regular season concludes.
Needless to say, it’s way too early for SMU fans to be looking at flights to Charlotte.
Georgia Tech and Virginia clearly have the smoothest paths to Charlotte, but still, as we have seen already, upsets can happen in this league.
Coaching carousel continues to spin
Virginia Tech handed coach Brent Pry the pinkslip in September, after starting the season 0-3, following a 45-26 home loss to Old Dominion.
Pry won’t be the lone ACC coach seeking employment elsewhere next season.
Far from it.
Mike Norvell, despite the dreaded “vote of confidence” given by Athletics Director Michael Alford, will be on the street the day after FSU concludes its season with a game at Florida, which just fired its coach, Billy Napier.
Norvell was a star in the college football world after bringing the Seminoles back from the dead, going 23-4 during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, including a perfect 13-0 regular season mark in 2023.
Since then? FSU has gone 5-15 and has lost nine straight in ACC play.
Yes, coaching fortunes change that quickly.
Dabo Swinney, while not exactly facing direct heat from the suits in the AD’s office down in Death Valley, may take the Tony Bennett and Jay Wright route.
Swinney hasn’t embraced modern recruiting, really doesn’t like the NIL model, and is almost steadfast against bringing in transfer portal talent.
I like Swinney’s principles, but they are a recipe for disaster in the current world of college sports.
Bill Belichick, 73, tried to calm reports from a week ago that he was in preliminary discussions with North Carolina about buying out his remaining contract.
Belichick said: “They were categorically false.”
That was before the Tar Heels’ latest embarrassment, a 21-18 loss to Cal.
In that game, UNC fumbled on its first and last offensive plays.
The first fumble resulted in a quick Cal touchdown, and the last fumble, at the Cal goal line, sealed the win for the Golden Bears.
Can things get worse in Chapel Hill?
Yep. But it won’t, as UNC tells the circus ring-leader Belichick to move his big top to another town.
Movin’ on up?
Jeff Brohm, the Louisville head coach and alumnus, is my surprise ACC coach that might reside elsewhere next season not because of being fired, but because of: success.
Brohm, who played quarterback at Louisville from 1989 to 1993, has been the Cardinals head coach since 2023.
This season, he has Louisville near the top of the ACC standings, having recently upset formerly undefeated Miami.
Louisville is a good job, but far from an elite job.
I can see Braum getting serious interest from job openings at Florida and Penn State, and possibly the upcoming head coaching vacancy at Auburn.
Brohm flies under the radar nationally and even in the ACC.
Not for long.
ACC Power Rankings
- Georgia Tech
- Virginia
- Louisville
- Miami
- SMU
- Duke
- Clemson
- NC State
- Cal
- Pitt
- Stanford
- Syracuse
- Wake Forest
- Virginia Tech
- Florida State
- North Carolina
- Boston College
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