In reply to: UNC was never a reliable top 25 team to schedule. posted by tdiddy07
you get the point.
It is also a one-coach program and is not a good bet moving forward to be a ranked team.
I don't see any other path to credibility.
looks something like:
Top 10:
Clemson
Miami
FSU
Top 25:
Pitt
Louisville
Va Tech
BC
Top 50:
NCSU
UNC
Georgia Tech
The rest:
Wake Forest
Duke
UVA
The current version of the ACC is:
Top 10:
[inaudible]
Top 25:
Wake
NCSU
Pitt
Top 50:
Virginia
Clemson
BC
UNC?
The rest:
Louisville
Georgia Tech
Va. Tech
Duke
Syracuse
FSU
Miami
Half the conference is a random bag of suck. Clemson having a really down year has exposed how shallow and weak the whole conference is.
What is wrong with you?
They're a historically mediocre program that has had intermittent success in the past and currently has a world-class coach. If Swinney got hit by a bus tomorrow, you couldn't rely on Clemson to go on winning 10+ games every year.
program has as many National Championships as Notre Dame has over the last 43 years. That's a long time! Factor in Dabo, and they have the same amount of titles as ND does in the last 54 years. I believe college football went to an 11 game schedule 50 years ago. Clemson and ND both have 16 10+ win seasons in that span. With much more recent success than ND, I'd say it's a safer bet to rely on them winning 10+ games than ND if both of our coaches got hit by buses tomorrow.
There's a big time atmosphere to sell to recruits even if the performance has only recently justified that. It is driving distance to a lot of talent.
There's good reason to think the next coach might prefer Clemson over either Miami or FSU.
I think the bigger stretches are relying on the second tier other than Va Tech to be ranked. One of BC/Pitt/Louisville could do it with some regularly. But I think it's much more likely you could see the first tier all in the top ten several straight years than you would see all the second tier in the top 25 several straight years.
That doesn't mean the most likely. Though, if I were picking teams like stocks, I'd take Clemson over Miami. Not sure what I'd do about FSU.
Edit to add:
Part of the measure of "Best" is whether the rankings of the particular teams feel strong or weak. Like, Cincinnati at #2 right now may or may not be deserved, but it feels weak. Similarly, even if Wake Forest goes undefeated, they feel much weaker than FSU or Miami or Clemson being undefeated. A top ten Clemson, Miami, and FSU is going to create more buzz, attention, and excitement than the other schools in the conference (see also, our "big" win in 2018 over #12 Syracuse)