The college football season is almost here and that first month helps set the tone. Will players and fans be confident and hopeful that this is their year across North Carolina sports betting or be quickly demoralized?
Since 2012, it’s no surprise that when it comes to September football, the best team in the ACC has been Clemson, with a gaudy 38-4 record, followed by NC State at 32-9 (the best of schools in North Carolina).
The other Carolina ACC teams are No. 6 Duke at 30-14, No. 8 Wake Forest at 28-15 and No. 14 (that’s last) North Carolina at 19-21.
As they say with all investments, past performance is not an indicator of future performance, so when it comes to predicting September 2023 in the ACC, BetCarolina.com is looking at this year’s teams and schedules.
And before Tar Heels fans get too irked with that record above, know that BetCarolina.com is going out of their way to closely track the Drake Maye Heisman odds this season.f
Best ACC Football Teams in September Since 2012
Clemson Still The Team To Beat
Clemson is coming off an 11-3, 8-0 season and will certainly be in the running for the ACC’s best with a rejuvenated Florida State (10-3, 5-3 in 2022) and a North Carolina team (9-5, 6-2 in 2022) that’s nationally relevant again. If NC State (8-5, 4-4 in 2022) can figure out how to score, they, too, could be in the mix. Stick with BetCarolina.com for the best North Carolina sportsbook promos ahead of the season.
Duke (9-4, 5-3 in 2022) either overachieved last season or they’re a team on the rise, and quarterback Riley Leonard should make the offense fun to watch. We're tracking Duke football odds all season long.
The state’s other squad, Wake Forest (8-5, 3-5 in 2022), has a question mark on defense and needs quarterback Mitch Griffis to be at least an OK replacement for Sam Hartman.
As for how the Carolina teams will fare this September, the Wolfpack open Sept. 2 at UConn. First games are always tough to figure, but that should be a win. UConn isn’t slated to crack the Top 100.
The next week Notre Dame comes in (welcome back Sam Hartman) and that likely is a loss. Notre Dame could be a Top 10 team. VMI at home on Sept. 16 better be an easy win. At Virginia on Sept. 22 and Louisville at home on Sept. 29 should both be wins if NC State is the team it has been.
How Each Squad Will Approach September
North Carolina has a tough September. They open in Charlotte against South Carolina, a borderline Top 25 team, and follow that up at home against a decent Appalachian State team. No cakewalk there. Then it’s a solid Minnesota squad coming to Chapel Hill before finishing the month at Pitt. A 2-2 split would be pretty good – 3-1 and the Tar Heels are going to be tough. We'll have updated UNC football odds here all season.
Duke will be tested right out of the gate with a home opener against Clemson on Sept. 4. Five days later Lafayette from the Patriot League comes in and that should be a good opportunity to heal the wounds from Clemson. The Blue Devils get Northwestern at home the following week and they should be rested and ready for what’s likely the Big Ten’s weakest team.
They’re at UConn the following week and that should be win, but then they’re back home to face Notre Dame on Sept. 30. So, Duke has one sure win, one very likely win, two very likely losses, and one probable win that’s not a gimme.
Wake Forest is looking to open the season with a win in a Aug. 31 home opener against Elon. They’re back home on Sept. 9 against Vanderbilt. Vandy isn’t a great SEC team, but they’re still an SEC team. Wake, however, probably should beat the Commodores at home.
Wake should definitely beat low-ranked Old Dominion on the road the following week, but teams that aren’t dominant can always struggle on the road.
Then the following week the Demon Deacons get Georgia Tech at home in what’s a must-win for their ACC hopes – they have a tough league schedule with Clemson, Florida State, and NC State to go with Pitt at home, and road games at Virginia Tech, Duke, and Syracuse.
Methodology
With the CFB season coming in just over a week, BetCarolina.com utilized Sports-Reference.com to find the records of every ACC team in September since 2012 to find the best to worst teams during the first full month of the CFB season.
Note that all teams didn’t participate in the same amount of games, so ranking is based on win percentage.
