Would really love for the ACC to get a few good non conf wins this year, not that I’m PRO ACC but I hate seeing 4 Big10 & 4 SEC teams in the playoffs
I do not like the ACC, but I dislike the SEC and BiG more. If we jare invited to oin one of them and do, I'll reconsider. But RN having non-Miami ACC teams beat teams in those conferences helps the Canes and hurts teams and conferences I strongly dislike. It's a case of lesser evils where I actively root against those I dislike more.
We're obviously head and shoulders above the 16 dwarves. But there's some pretty clear trends worth noting.
- Va Tech is third behind Clemson. In Franklin's mulligan class, they were 5th. Pre-Franklin, they were 9th in 2025, 10th in 2024 and 6th in 2023. Franklin had them at 4th in the transfer portal vs. 9th in 2025 and14th in 2024.
- Cal and Louisville round out the Top 5. They were also 2 and 3, respectively, in the 2026 transfer portal.
- Clemson, as noted, is at #2. They've been 4th, 4th and 2nd the previous 3 recruiting cycles. They finally started using the portal with 11 transfers in, but were still only 12th in the ACC. Before that they maybe took a kid or three each season from the portal. They're still relevant and trying to stay that way. But unless their evals are home runs, they're just one in that second-tier pack
- FSU is 11th, UNC is 14th and GT is dead last. The meteoric decline of Norvell and Belichick and the end of the Haynes King era have buried those three programs.
- SMU plays well but consistently recruits mid-ly. HS: 16th (second to last) in 2027, 6th in 2026 and 2025, dead last in 2024 (first year in ACC). For portal, they were 6th in 2026, 8th in 2025 and 7th in 2024.
On paper, our biggest competitors for the next couple of years look to be Clemson, Louisville, perhaps not so surprisingly Va Tech, and surprisingly Cal.
Maybe Lashlee fixes SMU now that they're going to start receiving their ACC rev share. But they're in that third tier with Pitt, NC State and Cuse talent-wise from a ranking perspective.
FSU and UNC will be lucky to be .500 in the conference this year, after which the bottom drops out without a major change in talent acquisition.
Population growth and heavy investment by the private and public schools in Georgia, especially metro Atlanta.I was looking at the commit list for the ACC and some Bug10/11 and SEC programs.
One thing that stands out to me is the number of kids from Georgia high schools are committed.
The state has always had excellent football, but it seems the quantity/scale has increased.
Kind of reminds me of DMV area.
No Miami offer. I was chatting him up about Miami and that's when he told me he prefers to stay closer to family. I asked about BYU and Utah with their Poly pipeline and that's when he offered that Utah is one of the schools he's looking at, but Oregon is the school he's hoping offers.
Spafford's former teammate, so maybe Vance can drop a hint to Mirabal.
Ivins believes it’s a below average year for QBs, OTs, and South Florida
Says the Tyler ford take will look smarter and savvier as time goes on
Agreed; 43 four stars in Florida last year; currently 27 right now — most being in the tri-county area.I actually think it's at least an average year for Soflorida, and a better than average year depth wise…You got kids that I bet we all agree wouldn't be ranked top 20-25 still going p4. I think it's a REALLY DOWN YEAR for the rest of Florida.
“We’re not a first-time head coach trying to share a story that there’s no evidence for,” Franklin said. “We’ve got a ton of evidence. We’ve done it in the SEC, we’ve done it in the Big Ten, and we’re coming to do it in the ACC.”