Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich
North Carolina a top 25 team?
The Tar Heels beat Miami and Rutgers, teams with a combined 3-7 record. They lost to Virginia Tech. At home.
There is no question North Carolina deserves praise for its win over UConn -- the defense played outstanding, and has made marked improvement as a group all season. They're leading the league in interceptions. The Tar Heels are a good, well-coached football team that is getting better each week, but they're not a top 25 team just yet.
No. 18-ranked Virginia Tech has been held to under 300 yards of total offense four times this season (they're 108th in the nation), and apparently they've set the standard for the league with their 2-0 ACC record.
Fine. Georgia Tech is averaging 412 yards per game. They're fifth in the nation in rushing offense. And everyone on Georgia Tech's defensive line will play in the NFL.
Florida State leads the ACC in total offense, scoring offense, rushing defense, total defense, and net punting. Georgia Tech leads the ACC in rushing offense, pass defense, passing efficiency, pass defense efficiency and tackles for loss.
North Carolina? Well, they beat Rutgers, Miami and Connecticut, the latter being a formerly ranked team.
Frankly, the only ACC teams that deserved to be ranked today are Virginia Tech and Wake Forest because they are the only teams with unblemished conference records in an average league.
Odds are that will change in the second half of the season, and odds are North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Florida State will be among the teams that have something to do with it. It just hasn't happened quite yet.
Heather Dinich covered ACC and Big Ten football for five seasons before joining ESPN.com in November 2007. She's an Indiana grad but somehow her favorite day of the week is Saturday.
