The top of the ACC’s football standings has six teams with zero or one conference loss. None of them are Miami, Florida State or Clemson.

While it’s easy to focus on the marquee underachievers, there’s another vital variable that, perhaps, shows the ACC’s path toward long-term viability is working.

“That shouldn’t diminish the fact that the other programs in the league have made tremendous investments and have continued to get better,” Wake Forest athletic director John Currie said.

The improvement of the ACC’s traditional lower/middle class has created a conference that’s deeper than usual:

• The league had five teams ranked by the College Football Playoff selection committee this week: No. 14 Virginia, No. 15 Louisville, No. 17 Georgia Tech, No. 18 Miami and No. 24 Pitt. That’s happened only six other times in the previous 65 sets of CFP rankings. In mid-November 2019, for instance, the league’s only representative at the time was Clemson.

• Four years ago, the ACC had only five teams in the top 50 of ESPN’s SP+ advanced metrics (six if you include SMU, which had not yet joined from the American). This week, the conference has nine.

• Seven ACC teams have at least a 7 percent chance to make the CFP, according to projections from The Athletic’s Austin Mock. Last year at this time, there were only four.

One explanation for the greater depth is a larger investment. Pitt, Louisville and Georgia Tech all upped their football expenses by $10 million from 2019-23, according to figures reported to the U.S. Department of Education. Duke’s costs soared $19 million in that time period; the Blue Devils’ football spending in the 2023-24 fiscal year ($44.1 million) was in the same ballpark as Florida ($45.7 million). Wake Forest has poured $125 million into football facilities in the past 15 years, putting Jake Dickert in line to become the first Demon Deacons coach to make it to a bowl game in his first season.

If the ACC’s bet is correct, those moves are just the start.

As FSU and Clemson grumbled about falling financially behind their Big Ten and SEC peers, the ACC made two tweaks to the way it pays its members. The first (announced in 2023) steers more money to the programs that are more successful in football, plus men’s and women’s basketball. The second does the same with TV viewership in football and men’s hoops; it started this year as part of the settlement that ended dueling lawsuits between the ACC and FSU/Clemson.

Clemson estimated the potential income at an extra $120 million over six years — enough to close or shrink its gap with the Big Ten and SEC. But nothing was guaranteed for the Tigers, Seminoles or anyone else. The money had to be earned.

“This creative and innovative approach allows all our schools to benefit from these opportunities, which are directly connected to embracing competition …” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said. “The reality is there is opportunity for each of our schools to earn more money, and it’s clear there’s a focus on making the necessary investments to unlock additional revenues.”

Although it’s too early and too simplistic to attribute the new-look standings entirely to the new payout model, there are some promising early signs.

Virginia Tech, which fired Brent Pry in September, will be a more attractive job during this cycle in part because its board of visitors agreed to add $229 million to its athletic budget over the next four years. The new ACC incentives were part of the board’s discussion.

Duke made Tulane transfer Darian Mensah one of the highest-paid players in the country. He threw four touchdown passes last week in a win over Clemson that made the Blue Devils 4-1 in conference play.

Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key has touted his school’s investments in people, from staff retention to nutrition. The Yellow Jackets are in the CFP rankings for the first time since 2014.

Virginia was slow to adapt to the NIL era but became aggressive in the last talent acquisition cycle with a haul headlined by quarterback Chandler Morris. The Cavaliers have their highest ranking in the AP poll (No. 12) in more than two decades and tied their single-season record with seven consecutive wins.

“It’s gotten to that point where if you don’t (invest), you don’t have a chance,” Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott said.

Duke is 4-1 in the ACC after winning at Clemson for the first time since 1980. (David Jensen / Getty Images)

The same idea holds at the conference level.

The best way for the ACC to remain a power conference is to encourage investments that create better football teams, even at traditional basketball schools. Better football teams create better TV matchups that draw bigger audiences and lead to bigger TV contracts. If that formula plays out long enough and well enough, the ACC will be in a position to capitalize when its ESPN contract expires in 2036.

This season is on pace to be the most watched in ACC history, according to the league. Week 1 blockbusters like Miami’s win over Notre Dame and Florida State’s upset of Alabama have helped push metrics up 78 percent over last year on Nielsen-rated networks. Three of ESPN’s five most-watched Friday night games of the past decade were this year: Virginia’s double-overtime thriller over FSU, Louisville’s upset of Miami and Georgia Tech’s Week 1 win over Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes.

“Those facts are certainly telling,” Phillips said.

The ACC still has work to do. Pitt, SMU and Duke are ACC contenders despite losing all four nonconference games against Power 4 teams (the Blue Devils also lost to Tulane), and though the ACC is well-represented in the initial CFP Top 25, no team is ranked higher than 14th.

Then again, it wouldn’t be a shock if the Panthers and Yellow Jackets knocked off Notre Dame and Georgia later this month. Upsets like that would bolster the league’s credibility and, perhaps, nudge a second team into the CFP bracket while providing proof of concept that its model is working.

“Winning is expensive,” Currie said, “but the only thing more expensive than winning is losing.”

*— The Athletic’s Grace Raynor contributed to this report. ***

Nov 7, 2025

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