ACC Up For Grabs at Halfway Point

With the conference season nearly half done, one thing is clear in the ACC: There is no clear favorite to emerge as the conference front-runner.

Prior to conference play, North Carolina was the popular choice to take the ACC regular season and conference tournament title (not to mention the National Championship). But after starting 0-2 in ACC play with losses to Boston College and Wake Forest, the race for the ACC title opened up.

Clemson started the season 16-0 overall, and 2-0 in the ACC, before losing consecutive games to Wake Forest and North Carolina. Despite those losses, wins at Miami and Virginia Tech (two teams dangerous enough to make a deep run in the ACC tournament) have kept the Tigers in the top-tier of ACC title contenders.

Wake Forest has looked like the team to beat in the ACC on multiple occasions. Beating North Carolina and Duke early in the ACC season certainly raised eyebrows, but each of those wins was followed by surprising losses to less talented teams, including a shocking loss to current ACC bottom-feeder Georgia Tech. While the Deacs certainly have the talent to win the conference, their puzzling losses following huge wins have many wondering if their youth will catch up with them as the season progresses.

Duke is currently on top of the ACC standings with only one conference loss. However, the Blue Devils are just getting into the heat of their ACC schedule and have only played one top-tier ACC opponent in Wake Forest, a game which Wake won in the final seconds. With games against Clemson and North Carolina coming up in the next two weeks, Duke's place at the top of the ACC will definitely be challenged.

A little over a month remains in the ACC regular season and no team has set itself apart as the clear choice for winning the conference. The four teams at the top (Duke, UNC, Wake and Clemson) all have a legitimate chance to pull away, but the ACC is more than a four-team conference with Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami, and Boston College all capable of making a splash in the conference tournament. The next few weeks will certainly be telling, but at the halfway point of the conference season, the ACC has become exciting to watch and difficult to predict.