Clemson Trailing Florida State on Odds to Win ACC Championship This Season
In order to return to glory, the Florida State Seminoles have to find a way to get back to the ACC Championship Game.
After the Clemson Tigers won the ACC’s Atlantic Division the previous two years behind departed quarterback Deshaun Watson, the Seminoles are hoping to get back to the title game as the +110 favorites (bet $100 to win $110) on the odds to win the ACC championship at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The loss of Watson and a few other key players to the NFL has dropped Clemson to the +300 second choice to win the ACC behind Florida State. The Tigers won a tiebreaker with the Louisville Cardinals to take the Atlantic at 7-1 in the ACC, and they went 14-1 overall en route to claiming the national championship in an upset of the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Seminoles finished 5-3 in the conference and 10-3 overall.
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The quarterbacks in the ACC will again most likely determine who wins it in 2017. Florida State has sophomore Deondre Francois, who ended up with 3,350 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a first-year player. Louisville also has the reigning Heisman Trophy winner back in junior Lamar Jackson, who passed for 3,543 yards and ran for 1,571 while combining for 51 total touchdowns.
If Jackson can produce similar numbers, the Cardinals could be a good wager at +600 to win the ACC.
In addition, Clemson, back at +2800 odds to win the national title again this season, has a signal-caller battle going on between junior Kelly Bryant and freshmen Zerrick Cooper and Hunter Johnson in an effort to replace Watson. Regardless of who ends up as the starter, the Tigers will have a tougher time competing for the ACC title this season than in the previous three due to Watson’s absence.
The Coastal Division has had four different teams win it over the previous four years, and the Miami Hurricanes will be trying to make it five in five years. Surprisingly, the Hurricanes have never made it to the ACC Championship Game, although this season could very well be different. Miami is +600 to win the conference while the Virginia Tech Hokies are also in the mix at +700.
Virginia Tech lost to Clemson 42-35 in the 2016 ACC Championship Game and will be going for its seventh ACC Coastal title. The Hokies have won their division more times (six) than the Seminoles (five).
