Given the ACC’s lack of College Football Playoff success outside of Clemson, it’s likely no surprise that the Tigers have been the league’s most successful team during the month of October in recent years.
Overall, the Tigers have posted the second most wins in college football since 2014, with 121. That ranks behind only Alabama’s total of 126 but well ahead of the next closest conference member (Florida State at 82).
As for the home of North Carolina sports betting? There has been a lack of sustained success in the Tar Heel State for ACC football during that period. North Carolina State leads the pack statewide with 72 wins in the past decade, ranking 44th nationally. North Carolina (56th, with 67 wins), Duke (66th, with 64 wins) and Wake Forest (70th, with 62 wins) round out the list of ACC teams in the Tar Heel State.
How do ACC teams do when stacked up against one another for win-loss percentages in October games over recent years? Using Sports-Reference.com, BetCarolina.com – your source for the best NC sportsbook promos – found the average win-loss percentage for each team during the month of October over the past five full seasons (excluding 2020.) Note: Not all teams were in the ACC during this span.
Rank | Team | Average W-L% |
1 | Clemson Tigers | .817 |
2 | SMU Mustangs | .717 |
3 | Virginia Cavaliers | .600 |
4 | Wake Forest Demon Deacons | .567 |
T5 | Florida State Seminoles | .533 |
T5 | North Carolina Tar Heels | .533 |
T5 | Pittsburgh Panthers | .533 |
8 | NC State Wolfpack | .517 |
9 | Miami Hurricanes | .500 |
T10 | Louisville Cardinals | .483 |
T10 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | .483 |
T12 | Virginia Tech Hokies | .450 |
T12 | Boston College Eagles | .450 |
14 | Stanford Cardinal | .397 |
15 | Syracuse Orange | .313 |
16 | Duke Blue Devils | .283 |
17 | Cal Golden Bears | .200 |
This year, NC State has the best odds of winning the ACC among the four, ranking fourth on the bet365 North Carolina sportsbook for odds to win the league this year at +1400, as of Sept. 12. UNC (+2800), Duke (+10000) and Wake Forest (+30000) are much lower down on the list.
In the expanded, 17-team ACC table, no North Carolina team has fared better in October over the last five full seasons (again, excluding 2020) than Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons have won 56.67% of the team’s games during the 10th month of the year.
The fourth-place Demon Deacons beat out UNC (tied for fifth overall with a .517 winning percentage), NC State (eighth, .517) and Duke (16th, .283) when it came to October success. The ACC leaders were Clemson (an .817 winning percentage), 2024 league newcomer SMU (.717) and Virginia (.600). Check out our Clemson Tigers bowl projections for where we think the team might go this postseason. We counted the three new ACC teams on our list, including SMU, which was in the American Athletic Conference until this year.
On the flip side, Duke has posted the second-worst winning percentage in October over the last five full seasons, ahead of only league debutant California, which had a .200 winning October percentage over the past five years when it was a member of the Pac-12. Just above Duke are Syracuse (.313), Stanford (.397), Boston College and Virginia Tech, both at a .450 success rate.
Bookmark BetCarolina.com for our guide to college football betting in North Carolina plus more coverage as the season rolls on.
USA Today photo by Jim Dedmon
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer at BetCarolina.com specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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