With all the rumored movement of teams from one conference to another, for now the Atlantic Coast Conference appears to be on solid ground. The league’s Grant of Rights deal with its members make it quite difficult, if not impossible for teams to exit the league. Under this deal, any team would have to forfeit all media revenue earned in another conference back to the ACC. An exit fee of $100 million or more would make leaving the ACC for the SEC or Big Ten financially unwise.
Of course, there are always loopholes that can be discovered by crafty legal departments, so impossible is not in the college football vocabulary. Impossible was a word associated with the words “beating Clemson” until last year. The Tigers failed to win the Atlantic Division for the first time 2014. Wake Forest was the surprise winner in the Atlantic, while Pittsburgh won the Coastal Division title. Wake Forest figured to be a contender for the division title again this year until last week, their starting quarterback, Sam Hartman, was ruled out indefinitely due to a non-football issue that required a surgical procedure. Hartman might return late in the season, but his loss will hit the Demon Deacons hard enough to take them out of the conference championship picture.
2022 will be the final year of divisional play in this league. Here are the preseason PiRate Ratings for the league.
ACC Preseason PiRate Ratings
| Atlantic Division | ||||
| Team | PiRate | Mean | Bias | Average |
| Clemson | 119.7 | 119.5 | 120.5 | 119.9 |
| NC State | 118.3 | 117.3 | 118.5 | 118.0 |
| Wake Forest | 113.9 | 113.2 | 113.2 | 113.4 |
| Florida St. | 111.7 | 111.0 | 110.9 | 111.2 |
| Louisville | 111.7 | 110.5 | 110.7 | 110.9 |
| Syracuse | 106.4 | 104.8 | 104.7 | 105.3 |
| Boston College | 100.5 | 102.5 | 100.2 | 101.1 |
| Coastal Division | ||||
| Team | PiRate | Mean | Bias | Average |
| Pittsburgh | 115.9 | 114.6 | 114.2 | 114.9 |
| Miami (Fla.) | 115.1 | 113.7 | 114.9 | 114.6 |
| North Carolina | 108.0 | 108.2 | 107.5 | 107.9 |
| Virginia | 104.0 | 104.2 | 102.3 | 103.5 |
| Virginia Tech | 100.9 | 101.3 | 98.4 | 100.2 |
| Georgia Tech | 95.6 | 95.5 | 93.6 | 94.9 |
| Duke | 84.2 | 86.7 | 81.1 | 84.0 |
| ACC | 107.6 | 107.3 | 106.5 | 107.1 |
Preseason Official ACC Media Poll
| Votes | |||
| # | Atlantic | 1st Place | Overall |
| 1 | Clemson | 111 | 1080 |
| 2 | North Carolina St. | 44 | 959 |
| 3 | Wake Forest | 6 | 783 |
| 4 | Louisville | 0 | 591 |
| 5 | Florida St. | 2 | 509 |
| 6 | Boston College | 1 | 469 |
| 7 | Syracuse | 0 | 201 |
| # | Coastal | 1st Place | Overall |
| 1 | Miami | 98 | 1036 |
| 2 | Pittsburgh | 38 | 911 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 18 | 823 |
| 4 | Virginia | 6 | 667 |
| 5 | Virginia Tech | 3 | 592 |
| 6 | Georgia Tech | 1 | 343 |
| 7 | Duke | 0 | 220 |
| Championship | Overall | ||
| Clemson | 103 | ||
| North Carolina St. | 38 | ||
| Miami | 8 | ||
| Wake Forest | 4 | ||
| Pittsburgh | 3 | ||
| Virginia | 3 | ||
| Florida St. | 2 | ||
| North Carolina | 2 | ||
| Boston College | 1 |
The PiRate Ratings are designed to look at just the next week’s schedule of games and not to use to look forward. Nevertheless, here are the predicted won-loss records for the league.
Predicted Won-Loss Records
| Atlantic | Conf. | Overall |
| Clemson | 8-0 | 12-1 |
| North Carolina St. | 7-1 | 11-1 |
| Louisville | 5-3 | 8-4 |
| Wake Forest | 4-4 | 8-4 |
| Florida St. | 4-4 | 7-5 |
| Syracuse | 2-6 | 4-8 |
| Boston College | 1-7 | 4-8 |
| Coastal | Conf. | Overall |
| Miami | 7-1 | 10-3 |
| Pittsburgh | 7-1 | 11-1 |
| Virginia Tech | 4-4 | 8-4 |
| North Carolina | 4-4 | 7-5 |
| Virginia | 2-6 | 5-7 |
| Georgia Tech | 1-7 | 2-10 |
| Duke | 0-8 | 2-10 |
Clemson picked to win ACC Championship Game
The Pi-Rate Ratings 