For most of the 2024 college football season, ACC fans believed that the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers were on a crash course for the conference championship game.
Miami owned the most productive offense in the country thanks to Heisman Trophy frontrunner Cam Ward, and the Tigers (with two national championships under their belt since 2016) had looked absolutely unstoppable since their Week 1 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Other teams around the conference looked impressive, but there was a clear top two. Right?
Well, not so much after Saturday.
The Louisville Cardinals left Death Valley with a 33-21 victory over Clemson, leaving tattered dreams of the College Football Playoff bracket in their wake. While the Hurricanes shifted up one spot to No. 4 in the newest AP Poll, the Tigers slid all the way down to No. 19 with a second loss on their resume.
The Clemson loss left an opening in the ACC power vacuum, and the SMU Mustangs vaulted forward to fill it with a 48-25 victory over the previously undefeated Pittsburgh Panthers. In their first year as members of the conference, the Mustangs have now won their first five ACC games with wins over Louisville, Duke, and Pittsburgh on their ledger, and it helped them climb seven spots to No. 13 in the new AP rankings.
The Oregon Ducks held tight onto the top spot after a 38-17 road victory over the defending national championships, the Michigan Wolverines, who dropped to 5-4 for the year. The Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Texas Longhorns joined Miami within the top five.