The ACC already has five teams with at least seven losses, more than any other Power 5 conference.
A year after getting a record 12 teams bowl eligible and scrambling to find a spot for all of them, the league will not fill all its bowl tie-ins.
Only three teams are currently ranked, one fewer than this time last year.
Yet in what is unquestionably a down year for the league as a whole, Clemson seemingly has been judged independently of their conference, a surprise considering how heavily league affiliation has been used to either hold up or drag down teams -- first during BCS discussion and now during playoff discussion.