Learn each school’s location, mascot, football vibes, fan trope and notable people. Teams are loosely ranked by football prominence1 (though I have a table tallying 5-year win totals at the bottom).
Clemson
FSU
NC State
Miami
UNC
Louisville
Pitt
VT
UVA
GT
Wake
BC
Duke
Cuse
Read the rest of the fan guide — including ACC history, ACC rivalries and intros for the newcomers — here.
(1) Clemson
Location: Clemson, SC
Mascot: Tigers. The run down the hill is an electric opening to home games, but the chant where they spell out C-L-E-M-S-O-N is annoying.
Football Vibes: One of the current giants of the sport, but Dabo’s reluctance to play the NIL and portal game is starting to show some cracks2? But they made 6 straight CFP appearances (including 2 national titles) and have ten more ACC wins3 than the next closest team, so their status is still above reproach at this point.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 34 (1st)
Student / Fan Trope: Just picture Dabo. Golf polo, khakis, not a ton of swag but a ton of self assurance.
Notable People: DeAndre Hokpins, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Dabo Swinney (current coach)
(2) FSU
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Mascot: Seminoles. I’ve always liked the arrow helmets and the Tomahawk Chop can give you goosebumps
Football Vibes: One of the preeminent ACC programs. Definitely still smarting from getting stiffed by the CFP last year. Trying to nuke the ACC so they can be big boys in another conference. But let’s not forget that they were 3-6 just a few seasons ago.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 23 (T-4th)
Fan / Student Trope: Party school plus the football dimension of Florida Man
Notable People: Bobby Bowden, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, Jameis Winston, Mike Norvell (current coach)
(3) NC State
Location: Raleigh, NC
Mascot: Wolfpack. The loud, aggressive red is really the only color that captures State fan energy (see below). They have their own beer, Old Tuffy.
Football Vibes: Consistently 9-win good but can’t get over the hump. Pains me to say it, but probably the third best football program in the ACC. A rarity in college football where their defense has been great and their offense can’t score.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 24 (T-2nd)
Student / Fan Trope: Passionate for sure, but also a bit tortured and paranoid4, like the crazy uncle who can be a fun time but then rambles about conspiracy theories when he’s had one too many. Lots of lashing out. Pack Pride is a wild place. But again, passionate, which I respect
Notable People: Bill Cowher, Phil Rivers, Russ Wilson (sorta), Dave Doeren (current coach)
(4) Miami
Location: Miami, FL
Mascot: Hurricanes. The U. Another classic logo and color combo. Their ibis is also pretty cool looking
Football Vibes: Trying to recapture the greatness of the ‘80s, ‘90s and early aughts. Have won five national titles (but all before joining the ACC). The 2001 team is considered one of the most talented teams of all time. The fact we have to bring up a team from 20+ years ago tells you how recent seasons have gone. Score even higher than UNC on “failure to turn hype into results”
5-Year ACC Win Total: 22 (7th)
Student / Fan Trope: Party school but with the gilded glamor of Miami rather than the Florida Man angle. Might get big mad if you do the U-down hand motion, similar to the Texas horns-down.
Notable People: So many great players (Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Greg Olsen5, Clinton Portis, Devin Hester) but not so many recent additions, Jimmy Johnson, The Rock, Mario Cristobal (current coach)
(5) UNC
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Mascot: Tar Heels. Disputed history on the name. Our mascot is a ram named Ramses. The real-life ram version is…burdened with a heavy load6
Football Vibes: Great at recruiting and building hype before hilariously and painfully crashing and burning. See last season, when we were undefeated and ranked top 10 just to be relegated to (and defeated in) a mayonaisse-based bowl (again). Somehow have squandered 3 NFL-level quarterbacks.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 24 (T-2nd)
Student / Fan Trope: You’ll hear “wine and cheese” crowd7 , meaning we’re hoity-toity and too fancy to get in the mud like real fans. As the fan who went to games painted up and screaming, I hate how true that is. We’re not as preppy as UVA but, damn, there are a lot of quiet polos and khakis on game day.
Notable People: Michael Jordan, Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers, Drake Maye, Mack Brown (current coach)
(6) Louisville
Location: Louisville, KY
Mascot: Cardinals (bird, not the color, who tf has a color as a mascot8). Unclear why it has teeth.
Football Vibes: Lamar winning the Heisman was certainly the peak of Lville football, but they’ve put together strong seasons since (including competing in the ACC championship game last season).
5-Year ACC Win Total: 23 (T-4th)
Student / Fan Trope: Rowdy, definitely more lively and fun than some other fanbases. Miiight be verging close to trashy but a welcome reprieve from ACC preppiness
Notable People: Lamar Jackson, Teddy Bridgewater, Papa John, Rick Pitino, Jeff Brohm (current coach)
(7) Pitt
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Mascot: Panthers. I’m a big fan of the yellow-and-blue colorway and cursive PITT logo, especially compared to the muted colors of the Larry Fitzgerald era.
Football Vibes: I was honestly surprised to see them ranked so highly on the 5-year win totals, which bellies the point that they’re consistently under-the-radar good but never seem to pique national prominence/relevance. They’re also the only team other than Clemson and FSU to win the ACC championship game since 20119
5-Year ACC Win Total: 23 (T-4th)
Student / Fan Trope: I’ve always appreciated how all of Pittsburgh’s pro sports teams share colors, so I like to imagine that Pitt students are also big Pens, Stillers and Pirates fans. Maybe I’m conflating Steelers fans with Pitt fans but I also like to imagine them as gritty and tough. The Zoo in basketball is an underrated student section
Notable People: Dan Marino, Larry Fitzgerald, Aaron Donald, Kenny Pickett, Pat Narduzzi (current coach)
(8) Virginia Tech
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Mascot: Hokies. That’s some sort of turkey10? Idk. The VT hand sign thing is pretty cool and Enter Sandman gets me going.
Football Vibes: Coastal Chaos, meaning any given season they could go 10-3 or 6-7 and I’d be equally unsurprised. Beamer Ball was iconic (and mostly in the Big East) but there hasn’t been too much since.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 20 (8th)
Student / Fan Trope: I know Blacksburg is rowdy and VT is known for engineering, but I don’t know much else.
Notable People: Frank Beamer, Mike Vick, Marcus Vick, Brent Pry (current coach)
(9) Virginia
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Mascot: Cavaliers. Also go by the Wahoos/Hoos. My only note is that their mascot looks eerily like UNC legend Luke Maye11
Football Vibes: Nearly every other word in this post is written in jest and levity. I would be misguided to strike the same tone with the UVA football program, which is still overcoming the tragic shooting from a few years ago. They’ve had some rocky seasons (3 ACC wins the past 2 seasons), but I have the utmost respect for Coach Elliott and the players who have been picking up the pieces (and a few key wins12) after the tragedy.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 17 (10th)
Student / Fan Trope: Preppy. They also have a cultish reverence for Thomas Jefferson. They’ve become deluded into thinking that shot clock violations and scoring 40 points counts as exciting basketball
Notable People: Tiki Barber, Ronde Barber, Tony Elliott (current coach)
(10) Georgia Tech
Location: Atlanta, GA
Mascot: Yellow Jackets. But they drive an old-timey car called the Ramblin’ Wreck that is pretty cool.
Football Vibes: Just extremely mediocre. Confusingly, they ran the triple option for many years but also produced Calvin Johnson and Demaryius Thomas, so they haven’t had a consistent style. They won a national title in 1990 and claim a few others from the first half of that century13.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 16 (T-11th)
Student / Fan Trope: Definitely more nerdy engineering14 energy rather than Hotlanta/ATL energy
Notable People: Calvin Johnson, Demaryius Thomas, John Heisman15, Brent Key (current coach)
(11) Wake Forest
Location: Winston-Salem, NC16
Mascot: Demon Deacons. The name is a bit oxymoronic but he rides a sweet motorcycle and once officiated a wedding between other mascots, so he’s cool in my book
Football Vibes: Wake has had talented, noteworthy players in recent years, including Sam Hartman and Kenneth Walker III. But those players achieved greater acclaim and football success after transferring away to bigger schools. I would love from them to become a basketball school again, but that’s not been going great, either.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 18 (9th)
Student / Fan Trope: A strange mix of a dash of UVA’s preppiness, a touch of Duke’s elitism and a sprinkle of State’s defensiveness.
Notable People: Riley Skinner, Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, Dave Clawson (current coach)
(12) Boston College
Location: Chestnut Hill, MA17
Mascot: Golden Eagles. Probably the plainest, least exciting color and jersey combos in the ACC.
Football Vibes: Their head coach left to be a coordinator in the NFL. Which probably says more about the state of college football in the NIL and portal era than BC specifically, but it does neatly summarize the current appeal of BC football.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 16 (T-11th)
Student / Fan Trope: I don’t know any personally but I imagine they have some weird complex about going to school “outside of Boston” (see the footnote for Chestnut Hill) but not at one of those “outside of Boston” schools
Notable People: Doug Flutie, Matt Ryan, Luke Kuechly, Bill O’Brien (current coach)
(13) Duke
Location: Durham, NC
Mascot: Blue Devils. Timeless logo, colors and jerseys (in basketball, at least).
Football Vibes: Duke used to be an absolute laughingstock, pencil-in-a-W-on-the-schedule18 football school. Coach Cutcliffe and Coach Elko started to raise the program to respectability, but both are now gone, so we’ll see whether Duke slides back to hilariously bad. Obviously more of a basketball school
5-Year ACC Win Total: 13 (13th)
Student / Fan Trope: Elitist, snobby, all from New Jersey. I know some Dukies19 and I generally like them, but it’s fun to hate (and hating is the point of a rivalry, anyways).
Notable People: Daniel Jones, Steve Spurrier, Grayson Allen, Manny Diaz (current coach)
(14) Syracuse
Location: Syracuse, NY
Mascot: Orange (as far as I can tell the fruit and not the color)
Football Vibes: If you asked me to guess the ACC team with the fewest wins in the past 5 years, Cuse wouldn’t have been my first pick. This just goes to show that I don’t devote much mental space to Cuse football. Really a basketball school. Melo won a title, Jim Boeheim was vinegar and 2-3 zone. Not really on the football radar.
5-Year ACC Win Total: 11 (14th)
Student / Fan Trope: Again, never met one but I guess they’re cold? Temperature-wise, not disposition, because Syracuse gets more snow than anywhere else in the U.S. Cuse is big broadcasting school so many announcers went there.
Notable People: Jim Brown, Greg Paulus (yes, that one, and yes, football), Gary Gait, Scott Hanson, Jake Marsh
(Bonus) Notre Dame
Location: Notre Dame, IN
Mascot: Fighting Irish. One of the most iconic and classic uniform combos (although personally, I think they’re a little plain).
Football Vibes: Notre Dame is such a “big deal” that they are independent in football and only deign to associate with the ACC for other sports20. Similar to Miami, Notre Dame always seems to think it’s on the precipice of recapturing its greatness from bygone eras. To ND’s credit, they have made CFP in recent years (and proceeded to get crushed). Notre Dame is undeniably a great and marketable program
Student / Fan Trope: Catholic? Holier than though? Sure those apply, but in my mind, the defining trope of a Notre Dame fan is the persistent belief that this is the year.
Notable People: Lou Holtz, Joe Montana, Brady Quinn, Rudy, Manti Te’o, Marcus Freeman (current coach)
Win Totals
Read the Rest of the Fan Guide
Part 1: A (brief and recent) history of ACC football
[You are here] Part 2: Cliff notes on every ACC team
Part 3: ACC rivalries, ranked
Part 4: Intros to Stanford, Cal and SMU
To get more ACC content, subscribe below. For example, I write a lot about basketball and non-revenue sports, too.
Things get pretty crowded in the middle, so of all things to take offense from this post, don’t get too worked up about the rankings.
If you consider 9-4 bad
Over the last 5 years, see the table at the end of the post
Greg Olsen and the “7th Floor Crew” were part of the Big East, not ACC, but this song is canon (link needed)
Originally I wrote that Ramses has huuuuuge balls but that felt uncouth to write in the main text
The actual quote (from Sam Cassell) was “cheese and wine” but hey historgramics.
Yes, this is a joke @Stanford (and maybe @Cuse?)
Clemson and FSU’s ACC dominance plays into Coastal Chaos (read more in the ACC history post)
I suppose not just “some turkey.” The hokie is the supreme leader and god of all turkeys, wow. Also VT used to be the Fighting Gobblers? That’s awesome
UVA Cavalier vs Luke Maye pictures (via The Spun and CBS Sports)
They inexplicably beat #10 UNC in Chapel Hill last year. I think that evinces the fight of UVA and the over-hype of UNC
I did win a national title and back-to-back Heismans with GT in NCAA 25, so maybe they’re a sleeping giant?
The GT fight song even exclaims that they’re good engineers
Yes, of the Heisman Trophy. He coached at GT
Apparently BC is not “in Boston.” Man, do certain northeast schools lean heavily into the “school outside of Boston” line
Duke has literally argued in court that they are uniquely terrible at football (and the judge agreed)
This actually undersells my connection to Duke. My best friend/best man at my wedding went to Duke, and I genuinely enjoyed the people and campus at Duke whenever I visited. Cameron is the size of a high school gym but is unmatched in atmosphere. Lest I sound like a Duke apologist, hold these all these Ls, Dukies.
Except for one year when ND mega big-brothered us, joined the ACC in football for the Covid year, then went undefeated and played in the ACC championship game