We made it! College football is back, and wow—IT IS BACK. In the first major college football game of the year (which, for some reason, is being played internationally), Georgia Tech shocked Florida State 24-21 on a last-second field goal, sending the Seminoles home with their second straight loss to teams from Georgia.
The win was an upset by all measures, but it is being treated as if it was a true Top 10 win for the Yellow Jackets because, technically, Florida State is a Top 10 team according to the AP Top 25 preseason poll. Again, this was a huge win, but the narratives already starting could have an unfair impact on the rest of the season.
Florida State could literally go 0-12 this year, but the boost the Georgia Tech will get for this win will have an effect all year since they beat a “Top 10 team”.
Preseason Rankings Are Impossible to Really Predict
With the transfer portal changing every team’s roster drastically every year, it’s impossible to really know how good a team is going into every season. Sure, it’s a safe bet to assume Georgia will be a top team, but there are just too many mysteries outside of a select few teams.
Some may argue that having the polls is unimportant because things will work themselves out, but consider this: Florida State will still likely be ranked in the Top 25 when the Week 1 polls come out because of how highly ranked they were in the preseason. There is a real possibility that Georgia Tech comes in ranked behind Florida State, despite the win, because of some preseason notions and opinions that voters had before anyone had played any real games.
That is the issue with preseason rankings. Sure, if Florida State starts 0-2 they will fall out of the rankings, but as of right now they are still viewed as a Top 25 team while other teams who will start 1-0 will not be ranked.
Is the ACC Already in Trouble?
In some ways, the ACC is already limiting how many teams they can get into the College Football Playoff. Of course Florida State’s season is far from over, but this loss did a few things:
- If another team beats Florida State, the Seminoles may be out of the running.
- If another team beats Florida State, that win won’t be weighed with the same amount of credibility. Now, when Clemson plays the Seminoles in a few weeks, a Clemson win would only be a good, but not great win. If Clemson gets to the end of the season with a 10-2 record, and their best win is a 9-3 Florida State, it may not be enough to get an at-large spot.
- The league won’t be taken as seriously anymore. The entire nation just watched the Preseason favorite lose on a neutral field to the team projected to finish in the league’s bottom half. There isn’t another ACC week 1 game that will be watched as widely as this game outside of Clemson vs Georgia.
The ACC needed its top brands to play very well early in the season to establish high rankings before conference games. Clemson, Florida State, Miami, and Louisville are the four teams with the best chance to finish in the Top 12 this year. Still, it’s now looking like there is a chance that these four teams are 1-3 after the first week with Miami playing Florida and Clemson going up against the Georgia Bulldogs.
If this were to happen, the ACC may not have a single team ranked in the Top 20. It is an uphill battle to get multiple teams ranked in top 10 again. Could it happen? Yes, of course, but it certainly would be a rough start to the season.
Again, without preseason rankings, this may not be a huge issue, but by having them, the rankings could be working against the conference for the rest of the year.
