Not to be outdone regarding numbers at least, the ACC boasts the same number of teams in all sports except football as does the Big Ten—eighteen. Notre Dame which remains independent with regards to college football is a member of the ACC in all other sports. This year SMU, Stanford and Cal join the conference which has been historically rich with highly competitive teams like Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina—all projected to be in the AP Top-25 preseason poll on August 12th. That said, other ACC teams are not complete strangers to that ranking as well with NC State, Pitt, Miami, and Wake Forest all having found themselves on that poll within the last few years.
Regarding Cal and Stanford, that’s not going to happen for them this year as Stanford is actually projected to be in the basement of the ACC at the end of the season with Cal coming in 12th even though you should expect great things from RB Jaydn Ott, one of the best in the nation. Look for the Florida State Seminoles, the Miami Hurricanes, and the NC State Wolfpack to lead the way with Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers—who completely rejected adding players from the portal this year—a dark horse in the race.
Here are links to videos, articles, and other comments regarding the two former PAC-12 teams that are now in the newly configured seventeen team ACC:
Stanford—Troy Taylor
Cal—Justin Wilcox