ACC Power Rankings
Posted by cuorange on October 5, 2009
How were they compiled? I look at 15 statistical categories that are weighted using the historical importance of each category on determining the BCS Champion. For example, 8 of the last 9 BCS champions have finished in the top 10 in total defense and 8 of the last 9 champions have finished in the top 10 in scoring defense – these categories are more heavily weighted than, say, rushing offense.
A perfect score is 1.000.
| Rank | Team | Power |
| 1 | North Carolina State | .755 |
| 2 | Boston College | .702 |
| 3 | Virginia Tech | .633 |
| 4 | Georgia Tech | .630 |
| 5 | Clemson | .620 |
| 6 | North Carolina | .573 |
| 7 | Wake Forest | .471 |
| 8 | Miami | .453 |
| 9 | Florida State | .436 |
| 10 | Duke | .423 |
| 11 | Virginia | .412 |
| 12 | Maryland | .223 |
I’m sure the biggest gasp is over Miami. I think the Canes are vastly overrated. The media hype will tell you they’ve played “four ranked teams and beaten three of them”. True. One of those ranked teams was Florida State. Another was Georgia Tech. The third was a beat up Oklahoma team. The Canes are 88th in rushing offense, 83rd in scoring offense, 83rd in rushing defense, 69th in scoring defense and 115th in turnover margin. They were pole axed by Virginia Tech. My guess is that Miami is getting the benefit of playing in the ACC.
Virginia Tech’s rating is surprisingly hurt by their total defense ranking of 47th and their turnovers gained ranking of 81. The Hokies have some ground to make up to contend nationally as the opener against Bama showed.
A final note: These rankings looked at how the teams have played to this point. This is not a predictor of how they will play in the future.
Tomorrow we’ll look at the remaining undefeated teams and rank those.
CUOrange Blog 
B. Rink said
I’m not a huge fan of computer generated polls, but they interest me.
Miami maybe overrated statistically, but are you telling me UNC and Clemson beat Miami? You probably aren’t, but the poll is telling me that these teams were better than them through 5 games. It’s not even close. Another factor to put in there is that if those aren’t averages–Miami has played one less game than most teams in the ACC at this point. NC State has amassed their crazy totals against inferior opponents to who Miami has played.
Anyway, It’ll be interesting to track how the poll changes as the season goes on, good work!
B. Rink said
Also, I’ve got a new post just on the Clemson coaching situation–would be interested to see if you agree/disagree with what I’m saying at http://ontheb-rink.com/blog/?p=411
cuorange said
and I guess I’m not a big fan of human polls that are obviously skewed. You’re right in that I am not saying Clemson or UNC would beat Miami, just that they have played better statistically to this point in the season. Also, you are remembering the “bad” games and not the good ones by Clemson and UNC and humans tend to overlook the fact that Miami is getting huge props for barely beating a 2-3 FSU team, a so-so Georgia Tech team and a beat up OU team without it’s quarterback and wide receiver. And also they got pasted by Va. Tech.
My intention was to take the stats that correlate to a championship (at least in the past) and apply them to the ACC. When I do that it becomes obvious that despite the hype Miami is NOT a national contender and most likely will fall back to earth.
cuorange said
On second thought….looking at their schedule…with Florida A&M, UCF, Clemson, Wake, Virginia, North Carolina,Duke,and South Florida…they have a real chance to win out…and their stats on both sides should undoubtedly be improved…