Greg McElroy picks Miami over Florida State in ACC Championship

The ACC will look a bit different this season. However, despite adding the likes of Stanford, Cal and SMU to their ranks, two teams have emerged as preseason favorites meet in the conference championship game.

Many expect the Miami Hurricanes to take on the reigning ACC champion Florida State in the title game in December. ESPN’s Greg McElroy predicts the Hurricanes to unseat the Seminoles and win the 2024 ACC Championship.

“At this point, there’s more known commodities on the roster. They’ve been able to really upgrade at just about every position,” McElroy explained. “Now, are there a couple question marks in the back end defensively? Yes. But they did go out and bring in a guy like Mishael Powell from Washington. They feel pretty good about him filling in on one of those safety spots. I didn’t feel like their secondary was great last year. So I think another year in Lance Guidry system defensively, they’re going to be able to take the next step.

“So we’re taking Miami to win the ACC and punch their ticket to the [College Football Playoff] over Florida State. Much like last year, they’ll be waiting around on selection day to find out whether or not they are in.”

The catalyst for McElroy’s preseason prediction for the Hurricanes comes in the form of quarterback Cam Ward. The Heisman hopeful is the 2024 preseason ACC Player of the Year after transferring into the program from Washington State after dipping his toes into the 2024 NFL Draft waters.

Ultimately deciding the water was nicer in South Beach, Ward will enter his fifth season in college football not only motivation to win, but to also improve his draft stock as the ‘Canes look to come together and better build off last year’s 7-6 campaign.

Of course, Florida State also added a new face at quarterback, former Clemson and Oregon State star DJ Uiagalelei. They also haven’t lost a regular season game since 2022 as they look to earn an automatic bid into this year’s 12-team playoff.

The ‘Canes will look to get that effort off on the right foot as they enter Week 1 prepared for a massive contest against in-state rival Florida. From there, they’ll begin ACC play against Virginia Tech during Week 5 while their schedule also features a matchup against Louisville and a regular season meeting with Florida State — the two teams that comprised last season’s ACC Championship game.