Week 9 preview: Conference title contenders, key matchups and more

We're beyond the midpoint of the 2025 play and there's not a league successful the state that has a clear-cut front-runner.

There are 60 FBS schools with nary much than 1 league loss, and ESPN's FPI metric gives 29 of them astatine slightest a 10% accidental of winning their league.

It's not adjacent conscionable the sheer measurement of contenders, it's the astonishing teams that are successful the premix (hello, Virginia, Cincinnati and Vanderbilt).

All of that means we're astir apt successful for 1 of the wildest Novembers successful caller memory, with each league up for grabs and the playoff representation arsenic murky arsenic ever. Good luck with each that, committee. -- David Hale

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Who's looking similar a league rubric contender?

ACC: Take 7 teams. Throw them into a hat. Shake it up. Pull retired a name. There's your ACC champion! OK, it's not precisely that chaotic, but it surely feels that way.

The existent favourite to triumph the conference, according to FPI, is Georgia Tech -- a squad that is undefeated but hasn't played a implicit shot crippled yet. The Yellow Jackets person trailed successful the 2nd fractional successful 3 of their 7 wins and person mislaid the turnover conflict 4 times.

Virginia has played with occurrence adjacent much than Georgia Techs. The Cavaliers person won 3 consecutive games successful which they trailed successful the 4th quarter, including 2 that went to overtime.

Louisville trailed Pitt by treble digits successful the 2nd half, past mislaid to Virginia aft surrendering 2 antiaircraft touchdowns -- but the Cardinals besides person a triumph implicit Miami, which puts them successful premier presumption to marque a run.

The Hurricanes are unquestionably the astir talented squad successful the ACC, but a Week 8 nonaccomplishment to Louisville exposed immoderate glaring weaknesses successful the tally game, a deficiency of a perimeter menace successful the passing game, and saw Carson Beck revert to the worst of his Georgia epoch erstwhile trying to unit things.

Then there's SMU, which came wrong a whisker of winning the league past year, and the Mustangs inactive haven't mislaid a regular-season ACC contention since joining the league.

Add successful Duke and Pitt, who inactive person astatine slightest a puncher's chance, and the contention to Charlotte for the ACC title crippled remains wholly up successful the aerial without a clear-cut favourite to triumph it all.

Perhaps the bigger takeaway is that, of each the teams successful the mix,

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