Why college football's safest brands feel unsteady in Week 9 - ESPN

If the world were fair and just and the football gods shined their light upon all willing to bend the knee and honor the sport, then this would be the weekend in which we celebrate the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The headlining act of Week 9 should be this: The No. 1 team in the country, Miami, is set to visit North Carolina to face off against the greatest coach ever to walk a sideline.

The stage would be crowded with another marquee matchup between the two programs that have most defined the league's success over the past three decades: Florida State, owner of three national championships since 1993, and Clemson, owner of four title game appearances and two trophies in the past 12 years.

The undercard would be a joyous menagerie featuring last year's Cinderella, Virginia, against this year's little engine that could, Wake Forest. It would be a chance to enjoy a showdown between two programs with rich histories still clawing their way back after enduring the harshest of punishments — the «death penalty» at SMU and the Greg Robinson era at Syracuse. It would be a chance to see two schools that gave us two of the most electric players of the past decade — Christian McCaffrey and Lamar Jackson — battle as Stanford visits the Louisville Cardinals. It would be an opportunity to see Pat Narduzzi and Brent Key do the college football equivalent of the two Spider-Mans (Spider-Men?) pointing at each other when Georgia Tech visits Pitt.

But this is not a fair and just world. This is college football in 2026, where even the safest brands feel a bit unsteady on their feet and every ACC game has the feel of an unsuspecting man standing on the street as two inept contractors lift a piano into an open window 10 stories above.

Miami-UNC