The Atlantic Coast Conference title race remains tight heading into Week 9 of the college football season, with ninth-ranked Clemson (6-1, 5-0 ACC), No. 6 Miami (7-0, 3-0), No. 22 SMU (6-1, 3-0) and 19th-ranked Pittsburgh (6-0, 2-0) all still undefeated in conference play to date.

So, who has the best chance to win the ACC this season?

During an episode of College Football Live on Wednesday, ESPN’s Tom Luginbill broke down the top teams in contention for the conference crown.

Luginbill weighed in on what makes the ACC so difficult to evaluate and pointed to scheduling, as Miami, Clemson and SMU don’t play each other in the regular season. Luginbill also brought up quarterback play as “the one “common denominator” between teams in the conference title hunt.

“If you look at the teams that are still in the mix – Clemson and Miami don’t play each other during the regular season. SMU doesn’t play Clemson or Miami, and Pitt likely has the most difficult row to hoe the rest of the way through,” Luginbill said.

“The one common denominator, though, and one of the reasons why this is such a difficult gauntlet to navigate is look at the quarterback play of all of these teams that we’re talking about. (Syracuse’s) Kyle McCord has been on fire. Eli Holstein has been one of the biggest surprises in the transfer portal at Pitt. (SMU’s) Kevin Jennings has been lights out now for four weeks in a row. And we all know what (Miami’s) Cam Ward and (Clemson’s) Cade Klubnik are doing. So when you put all of those teams together, and eventually they all gotta somehow match up, the quarterback play is what makes the game and the margin of error so thin in the ACC when you’re starting to track this race.”

Luginbill added that with the competitive balance from top to bottom in the ACC, it’s crucial for teams to be able to do two things.

“You better be able to win on the road and win one-possession games,” he said. “Because that’s how close the margin is amongst the top five to six teams in the league.”

The 2024 ACC Championship Game is set for 8 p.m. ET on ABC on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. For the second consecutive season, the game will pit the top two teams based on regular-season conference winning percentage.

Per ESPN Bet, Clemson (+125) has the best odds to win the ACC, followed by Miami (+135), SMU (+550) and Pitt (18-1).

Pitt hosts Syracuse on Thursday (7:30 p.m., ESPN) as the Panthers seek their first 7-0 start since 1982, while Miami, which has scored 38-plus points in all seven games so far this season, has a home date with rival Florida State on Saturday (7 p.m., ESPN). SMU, meanwhile, travels to Duke on Saturday (8 p.m., ACC Network) having won eight straight road games – tied for the longest active streak in the FBS.

Clemson, of course, has an open date this week before returning to action against Louisville at Death Valley in Week 10 on Saturday, Nov. 2. The kickoff time and network TV designation for that contest are still TBA.

–Photo courtesy Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

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