{"id":355608,"date":"2026-07-29T00:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T00:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/355608\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T00:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T00:26:16","slug":"miami-hurricanes-picked-as-preseason-favorite-to-win-acc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/355608\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Hurricanes picked as preseason favorite to win ACC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Miami<\/p>\n

Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal signals from the field during UM\u2019s spring football game at Cobb Stadium on the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables, Florida, on Saturday, April 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

PHOTO BY AL DIAZ<\/p>\n

adiaz@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

The Miami Hurricanes, as expected, have been voted as the preseason favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference, the league announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

However, the Hurricanes, also as expected, are paying no attention to that or any other preseason accolades that come their way ahead of their season opener on Sept. 4 at Stanford.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to talk about it,\u201d Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said at the ACC\u2019s Football Kickoff in Charlotte. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to predict it. Let\u2019s go find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, it should come as no surprise that Miami is the ACC frontrunner following its run to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game; 165 of 188 voters picked Miami to win the conference, something the Hurricanes have not done since joining the league in 2004. UM was well ahead of SMU, who was voted to finish second. The ACC Championship Game is on Dec. 5, with kickoff from Charlotte\u2019s Bank of America Stadium set for noon.<\/p>\n

Should the Hurricanes win the conference championship, they would be the first preseason favorite to go on to win the league since Clemson in 2022.<\/p>\n

The 2026 season is the first for the ACC\u2019s expanded conference schedule \u2014 well, for the majority of the league.<\/p>\n

Twelve of 17 teams will play nine conference games, while the other five will play eight league games. Starting in 2027, all but one team have nine conference games annually, with the team stuck with eight games rotating each year.<\/p>\n

Because the league has an imbalance in the number of league games played by each team, the two teams with the highest win percentage will advance to the conference championship, although the league\u2019s new tiebreaker format can impact the standings.<\/p>\n

Full ACC predicted order of finish (first place votes in parenthesis)<\/p>\n

Miami (165)SMU (6)Louisville (4)Clemson (7)Georgia Tech (2)VirginiaNC StateVirginia TechPittsburghDukeFlorida State (3)CaliforniaWake ForestSyracuseNorth CarolinaBoston CollegeStanford (1)<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jordan McPherson<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal signals from the field during UM\u2019s spring football game at Cobb Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-355608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}