Media poll: Miami will meet Clemson in final ACC title game before league drops divisions

The Miami Hurricanes hope the final season of Atlantic Coast Conference divisions in 2022 will be their best since they joined the league in 2004 and divisions were created in 2005.

The national college football media believes it might be, with one crucial missing ingredient. The majority of a media contingent of 164 voters forecast the Hurricanes to win the league’s Coastal Division and meet the Atlantic Division’s Clemson Tigers in the Dec. 3 ACC championship at Bank of America Stadium — with Clemson predicted to emerge victorious for what would be its seventh ACC football title in nine years.

Clemson was the favorite to win the conference championship in the poll that was released Tuesday, receiving 103 of the 164 total votes to take the ACC title and 111 votes to win the Atlantic Division. UM was the favorite to win the Coastal, with 98 first-place votes. The Canes received eight votes to win the conference championship, third overall behind Clemson and North Carolina State (38).

The Tigers posted a 10-3 record last season, but it was Wake Forest that won the Atlantic Division before falling to the Coastal’s Pittsburgh in the league championship game. Miami (7-5 overall, 5-3 ACC) finished second in the Coastal last season. The media has Pitt finishing second in the Coastal to UM this season.

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The Hurricanes, who won national titles in 1983, ‘87, ‘89, ‘91 and 2001, have made it to the ACC title game only once — in 2017 when they went 10-3 and fell to Clemson 38-3 in the ACC title game.

If UM and Clemson should, indeed, meet this December for the ACC title, it would be for the second time in a two-week span. The teams, 6-6 in the all-time series, are set to meet in the next-to-last regular-season game Nov. 19 at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium.

New UM head coach Mario Cristobal declined to even discuss Coastal Division expectations last week at the ACC media days, let alone anything more substantial. “I just think its a cardinal sin to talk about being a champion and make a proclamation without ever taking a snap in a live game,’’ Cristobal said. “I don’t think you ever set yourself or your team up for something like that. The process is what the process is. There’s no way to get to Point B without going through all the steps that come through Point A. And there’s a lot that goes through it. We feel very confident we’re going to do the work it takes to be a successful program.”

Last month, the ACC announced a new football scheduling model that will go into effect beginning with the 2023 season. The new model is based on a structure that has each of the ACC’s 14 teams facing three “primary opponents” annually and the other 10 league teams twice — once home and once away — during a four-year cycle. UM’s primary opponents are Florida State, Boston College and Louisville, all currently in the Atlantic Division.

ACC Preseason Poll (164 total votes)

Overall Champion

Clemson, 103

N.C. State, 38

Miami, 8

Wake Forest, 4

Pitt, 3

Virginia, 3

Florida State, 2

North Carolina, 2

Boston College, 1

Coastal Division (first place votes in parentheses)

Miami, 1036 points (98)

PItt, 911 (38)

North Carolina, 823 (18)

Virginia, 667 (6)

Virginia Tech, 592 (3)

Georgia Tech, 343 (1)

Duke, 220

Atlantic Division

Clemson, 1,080 points (111)

N.C. State, 959 (44)

Wake Forest, 783 (6)

Louisville, 591

Florida State, 509 (2)

Boston College, 469 (1)

Syracuse, 201