When Virginia Tech came into the ACC in 2004, it started a run in the conference no really saw coming. That year the Hokies won their first of four ACC Championships through the 2010 football season.

And though it was great run for Hokie Nation, it wasn’t what the ACC needed or really wanted. The ACC was hoping Florida State, who owned the conference with 11 championships in its first 12 years in the league, with the addition of Miami in 2004, would carry the ACC to the next level and to the top of the college football mountain. They are both elite programs with a history of multiple national championships.

With FSU and Miami winning ACC Championships, the ACC was sure to be recognized and would finally be able to rival its big brother – the SEC. Unfortunately, for the ACC, it never materialized.

The Seminoles struggled in the later years of the Bobby Bowden era and won just one ACC Championship after Miami joined the league prior to 2012, and that came in an upset victory over No. 5 Virginia Tech in the 2005 ACC Championship Game.

Miami still has not advanced to the ACC Title Game, and it has only been close to accomplishing that feat just a few times. In 2005, the Hurricanes finished second in the ACC Coastal Division and did the same in 2010 and 2013. They finished second in 2012 as well, but thanks to self-proposed penalties while under an NCAA investigation they were not eligible to win the ACC Championship.

Though the ACC was banking on FSU and Miami, it was also hoping Clemson might ultimately find its way back to the top of the league. Before FSU joined the conference in 1992, the Tigers were the Kings of the league, winning seven ACC titles, one national championship and eight bowl games from 1977-’91.

Signs the ACC’s fortunes from a national standpoint might change began in 2009, when Clemson finally got over the hump and advanced to the ACC Championship Game, which it lost in a shootout to Georgia Tech. The next year, FSU advanced to the title game, where it lost to the Hokies.

But in 2011, the ACC finally started to get what it has wanted, Clemson knocked off the Hokies to win its first ACC Championship in 20 years. The next year the Seminoles won its first of three straight league titles. Since then, the Tigers and ‘Noles have owned the conference.

Clemson, this year’s preseason favorite to win the league, has posted a 27-6 record against ACC competition since 2011, while the Seminoles are 31-4 during that same time frame.

The Tigers have brought the ACC a lot of recognition as one of just three Power 5 Conference Teams to win at least 10 games for four straight years. They finished inside the top 10 on two of those occasions, with back-to-back 11-win seasons. In the last three years, Clemson has beaten college football powers such as Georgia, LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma, and won the 2014 Orange Bowl.

Florida State won the 2013 National Championship, won the 2013 Orange Bowl and advanced to the first ever College Football Playoff.

The ACC is finally a two-horse race and it’s what the conference needed. Now the conference needs someone else to compete with the Tigers and ‘Noles for years to come.

Can someone besides Clemson and Florida State win the ACC?

Since 2009, no one else in the Atlantic Division has even come close to advancing to the title game. The winner of the Clemson-FSU game has either played for or won the ACC Championship in each of the last six years. This year doesn’t appear to be any different.

Clemson is picked to win the league after receiving 84 of the 158 possible votes at last week’s ACC Football Kickoff. FSU was second with 41. The next closest was Georgia Tech with 20. The Tigers received 101 first place votes to win the Atlantic Division, while FSU got 56 and Louisville came in third with only one.

Can the Yellow Jackets dethrone the Seminoles and overtake the Tigers in 2015? Absolutely! With quarterback Justin Thomas running Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense, they will have a chance. Remember, the Yellow Jackets beat Clemson in 2014 and nearly took down the Seminoles in the ACC Championship game.

But let’s be honest with ourselves. When you look at the talent pool at Clemson and at Florida State, and you look at the way they have both recruited, no one in the conference is even close to reaching the depth and talent these two programs currently have.

The ACC, until proven otherwise, is a two-horse race between Clemson and Florida State, and the conference is in a whole better situation because of it.