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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/AllLinesAreStraight on 2024-07-27 16:45:54+00:00.

Continuing my series looking at the closest each power conference team has come to a national championship this century. I actually didn’t make the previous post about the ACC, someone else asked if they could and I had no problem with that but I couldn’t find the original post/poster so not sure if the account was deactivated or what. But anyway, here we are for the ACC. I’m throwing Notre Dame in here as well because they don’t deserve their own post but do deserve to be mentioned. Again, we are ranking them from closest to furthest from a national title:

Won a National Championship (Giving these teams blurbs this time! Sorry Big Ten and SEC teams that won titles this century. But cmon, nobody needed anotehr 3 paragraphs re-living Bama’s national titles)

  • FSU - 2013 - The 2013 team gets overlooked despite being, imo, a top 3-5 team this century. Technically, they won their 1999 championship in 2000 so count that if you want, too. They also made the title game in 2000 and the playoff in 2014.
  • Clemson - 2016, 2018 - Make this post in 2015 and Clemson would have like 5 seasons mentioned that ended with bad losses in the biggest games. But they got there eventually!
  • Miami - 2001 - 2001 Miami is arguably the best team ever (wouldn’t be my pick personally but its a reasonable one) and has probably the most recognizable roster to NFL fans ever. They had a couple close games but also beat the the 14th ranked team 59-0, the 19th ranked team 65-7, and the 15th ranked team 49-27 (using final AP poll rankings here). 2000 Miami didn’t make the BCS title game but arguably shoudl have (though hard to argue you should be in because of h2h over FSU when Washington had the h2h on you) while 2002 Miami made the title game before losing in a fair, uncontroversial game.

Now, those without a title.

  • Stanford - 2015 - Starting with a classic ACC team, there are, imo, 3 yeras you could pick for Stanford. There’s 2010, where their only loss was to Oregon who would go on to the BCS title game. There’s 2011, where the only regular season loss was to Oregon, where a win would have put them into the BCS title game ahead of 1 loss Ok State and 1 loss Bama. And then theres 2015, where, despite the infamous “body clock” loss to Northwestern, Stanford put themselves in play for a playoff berth before a 2 pt loss to Oregon down the stretch, including two fumbled snaps in the red zone, sank their hopes. I’ll take 2015 because that team shoudl have beaten Oregon while the other 2 lost by 3 scores. On the plus side for Stanford, no Oregon in their new conference to ruin their season…
  • Louisville - 2006 - 2016 Louisville is one of my favorite teams ever, and you could make an argument for them. That team really sputtered down the stretch though. 2013 also ended the season with only one loss but even if they had been undefeated, I doubt they get a BCS title berth over Auburn or FSU. 2006, though, was #3 in the BCS rankings, behind two teams that still had to play one another, before tripping up on a Thursday night in NJ against an undefeated #15 Rutgers team. Louisville would win out, ending #6 in the BCS rankings before winning the Orange Bowl. Had they won that game against Rutgers, they likely would have played OSU for the national title.
  • UNC - 2015 - 2015 UNC, at first glance, only got up to #10 in the CFP rankings. That said, they still likely make the playoff if they win the ACC championship game over Clemson. They would have been a 1 loss conference champ and would have jumped clemson, Iowa, OSU, Stanford, ND, and FSU, up to #4. Instead, the lost by 8 to Clemson and finished #10 in the rankings. The other option would have been 2020, where they got up to #5 but that team ended up with 3 losses in the regular season. 2020 got to a highe rank but it was largely off of pre-season hype (and 2020 being weird) while 2015 actually had a real playoff shot going into the ACC CCG.
  • Cal - 2004 - Much like UNC above, there are two ways of answering this for Cal. You could take the highest rank they got to, #2 in 2007, or the season where they actually came closest to a national CG appearance. I’ll take the latter because the team was better and because, well, half the FBS got to #2 in 2007. Also, I’m making this out as a close decision when it isn’t remotely a close one. The 2007 Cal team got to #2 but lost 6 of its last 7 games. So, congrats, I wasted 3 sentences of your time, hope you aren’t a slow reader. The 2004 Cal team was really good, quarterbacked by future NY Jets star Aaron Rodgers, and only had one loss, to eventual national champ USC on the road by 6 pts. They won the rest of their games, ended the season ranked number 4, and somehow only got a Holiday Bowl berth?
  • Boston College - 2007 - If you ever want to see the best example of a stadium going from absolutely rocking to dead silent in 10 seconds, go watch BC vs Virgina Tech (the first time) from 2007. Matt Ryan made 2 of the most ridiculous throws you will ever see to overcome a 10-0 deficit and win against #8 Va Tech. BC was #2, had just become the first #2 in several weeks not to lose, and had overcome their toughest remaining test. Naturally they immediately lost their next two games before losing to Va Tech in their ACC CCG match up.
  • Virginia Tech - 2007 - Va Tech is tough because there are a few seasons where they came close but they all involve a pretty bad loss. 2000 is the other option where a 20 pt loss to Miami caused a massive 1-loss logjam. Had Va Tech won that game, they woudl have played OU in the NCG. 2007 is quite interesting to me because the BC vs. Virginia Teach game in the regular season looked, at the time, like a home team trying to trip up the higher ranked road team. But in retrospect, that game was actually BC keeping Va Tech out of the national title game. That said, even if Va Tech had won that game, woudl they have made the National Title over 2 loss LSU considering that LSU had beaten them by 41 earlier in the year? I do not know.
  • Georgia Tech - 2009 - For Georgia Tech its either 2009 or 2014. I’m going to take the year they won the ACC. A week 3 loss to Miami was still overcomeable but a loss to bitter rival Georgia on the final week of the regular season sank their hopes of a BCS title game. They would go on to beat Clemson in the ACC title game the following week. Even with a win over UGA it is unlikely they make the BCS NCG but still, I would say it was the closest they’ve come.
  • Wake Forest - 2006 - Its basically 2006 or 2021. Both teams went 10-2 in the regular season. The 2021 team had a higher peak rank of 9 in the CFP, but the 2006 team won the ACC CCG while 2021 lost. Realistically, they came equally close to a national title game but the 2006 team gets the nod because of winning the ACC.
  • Pitt - 2009 - The Panthers started the year 9-1 before back to back losses to finish the season. First, a loss to WVU on a walkoff FG. Then, a 45-44 loss to Cincinnati in a de facto Big East title game in their final regular season game, where they blew a 14 pt 4th quarter lead, then scored a TD to take the lead with 2 min to go, had a botched hold on the ensuing PAT leaving it a 6 pt game, only to have Cincinnati come back and score the winning TD + PAT with 30 seconds to go.
  • Virginia - 2004 - UVA started the season 5-0, getting all the way up to #6 in the AP before getting killed by FSU. They’d win a couple more games, lose to Miami, and then lose their season finale to Virginia Tech. There really aren’t any other seasons in the discussion, this was their only season where they cracked the top 10 and saw their fewest losses of any season (tied with 2007).
  • NC State - 2002 - This team got all the way to 9-0 and #10 in the Ap poll. Unfortunately, they then lost 3 straight one score games before winning their finale against FSU. Interestingly, they finished 4th in the ACC that year but were the highest ranked of any ACC team in the final polls.
  • Syracuse - 2018 - Another team who has had some good seasons but never really got close to a national title game/playoff. I’ll go with 2018 where Syracuse started 8-2 with both losses being by one score, including a 4 pt loss to Clemson in Death Valley where Syracuse had a 10 pt 4th quarter lead but couldn’t hold on to close the game out. They got up to 12th in the AP poll before Notre Dame murdered them in the 2nd to last week of the season.
  • Duke - 2013 - There’s not much to go on here so I will take their best season in terms of wins, and their ACC championship game appearance. In order to beef up this blurb, I’ll just mention that 2000-2007 Duke is one of the saddest runs I’ve seen this century, with 10 wins in 8 seasons including back to back 0 win seasons in 2000 and 2001. Oof.
  • SMU - 2019 - Due to being a G5 up to this point, SMU has never really had a chance to win a national title, even had they gone undefeated. They were pretty mid-tier by G5 standards this century until the last 5 years which has seen their 3 best teams of the century (good timing for realignment!). I’ll give the nod to 2019 that started 8-0, before 2 1 score losses down the stretch doomed their NY6 hopes.