The college football season is now fully underway after we got back into a full slate of games in week one. From a UNC perspective, we probably still wish it was the offseason, as Bill Belichick's debut went very poorly in a loss to TCU.
However on the whole, it was mostly a pretty good week for the ACC. Other conference teams beat two top ten teams, while some of the middle class of the conference looked good in wins. With week one in the books and everybody now in the win or loss columns, let's take a look at the league with the first edition of 2025 of our ACC Power Rankings.
Last Week: Beat Notre Dame 27-24
Either the Hurricanes or another team that will pop up in a second have arguably the best win in all of college football so far this season. Miami was at home, but they looked very impressive in beating a fellow top ten team in Notre Dame to kick off their year.
FSU's win over Alabama was in the running for the biggest story of week one, as Mike Norvell's squad were in control for most of the game against the Crimson Tide. It'll probably be a couple weeks now before we find out if FSU is legit as their next couple games should be easy wins, but it's hard not to vault them towards the very top of the conference.
They may have been one of the ACC's few blemishes on the weekend, but it's hard to ding the Tigers too much considering the opponent and the talent they still have.
After debuting in the ACC with a Conference Championship Game appearance and a playoff berth, the Mustangs are looking to follow that up with another good 2025.
It took them a little while to pull away, but Duke ended up handling Elon to start their season with a win.
No issue for the Cardinals as they beat an FCS foe to start their year.
Thirty-five years after the fact, the Yellow Jackets delivered a blow in the 1990 split national championship race with a win over Colorado on the road.
The Panthers won a game against an in-city "rival" over Duquesne, although the Dukes are an FCS team.
Their offense didn't exactly light the world on fire, but the Hokies did have a tough out in week one against the Gamecocks.
Coming off a good 2024, the Orange were pretty easily handled by another team in Orange. Their schedule might dictate Syracuse finishing a ways below this #9 spot, but we shall see.
The Tar Heels are no strangers to playing dumb games against East Carolina, but the Wolfpack nearly blew a 17-0 lead to the Pirates in a game that went down to the very end.
The Golden Bears lost quite a bit in the transfer portal over the offseason, but you wouldn't have known that, as they beat former conference foe Oregon State fairly easily.
BC had no issues with Fordham in their season opener, but that was about par.
I sure would like to move the Heels to the very bottom -- and fans of other teams reading this might say that I should -- but I don't think UNC are quite as bad as they looked against TCU. That being said, my optimism for this year did go down drastically.
Tony Elliott probably needs a good season in 2025 for job-related reasons, and he and the Cavaliers got off to a decent enough start.
They got the win, but the Deacs went down to the wire against a team that was in the running for the worst in FBS last year.