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AIPROPX ReportYahoo Sports · 3h ago
UNC Football picked to finish 15th in ACC in media poll
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - JULY 17: Head coach Bill Belichick of the North Carolina Tar Heels fields questions during the ACC Kickoff media days at Hilton Charlotte Uptown on July 17, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Matt Kelley/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Media day events like ACC Kickoff mean that the football season is just on the horizon. While prognostication on the next season happens basically as soon as the confetti falls at the previous national championship game, this is around the time of year in which we really start to see it ramp up. Well, there’s an annual media poll that is conducted at ACC Kickoff, predicting the upcoming football season. On Tuesday, we got the results of that poll.
Not shockingly, the North Carolina Tar Heels were projected towards the bottom of the conference, coming in 15th out of the 17 teams in the conference.
One step closer to kickoff 👀 The 2026 ACC Preseason Poll has been announced. 🔗 https://t.co/OqFSBq0LKy pic.twitter.com/6sDkBUQILP
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) July 28, 2026
The Tar Heels are — as you might have heard — coming off a pretty terrible 2025 in Bill Belichick’s first season as UNC coach. In the offseason since, there’s been quite a bit of roster turnover, and it’s hard to know what to expect for this coming season. It’s certainly possible that everything clicks and this roster ends up finishing quite a bit higher than that. However, based on how bad of a flop last year was, skepticism is certainly warranted.
Coming off their runner-up finish in the College Football Playoff, Miami are the heavy favorites to win the conference, getting 165 of 188 possible first place votes. Of course, they famously made the playoff and nearly won the title after not winning the conference or even making the championship game, however, they’re the understandable favorites this season.
With 188 voters, there are still other teams that got first place votes. SMU, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Stanford were the other teams that were at the top of someone’s ballot. Some of those are questionable, but the Stanford pick is the only completely incomprehensible one, as the Cardinals finished last in voting overall. I think if you gave everyone in their program truth serum, even they would admit that they’re not likely to be good this season.
In addition to Stanford, the only other team projected to finish below UNC is Boston College. Reigning conference champions Duke were picked to finish 10th. However, they notably lost their quarterback to Miami , and it took a weird set of circumstances to get them into the ACCCG in the first place.
These polls are hardly gospel, and you’ll be able to find something in every conference every year that ends up being wrong. That being said, it’s hard to argue with the skepticism surrounding UNC going into 2026.
UNC FootballACCUNCHeadBill BelichickNorth Carolina Tar HeelsACC KickoffHilton Charlotte UptownCharlotteNorth CarolinaPhotoMatt Kelley
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