Appearing on ACC PM on the ACC network earlier this week, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford acknowledged he will get in trouble for saying he will root for the Miami football team in three weeks when the Hurricanes play at Texas A&M. Coburn reiterated the importance of conference teams rooting for each other.
Florida State begins the season this weekend when they host Duquesne on Saturday. North Carolina is the only other ACC team beginning the season in week zero. North Carolina hosts Florida A&M on Saturday. The rest of the conference will begin the season Labor Day Weekend.
Miami opens the season on September 3 against Bethune-Cookman. Florida State has its own marquee game on September 4 versus LSU at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Clemson will play Georgia Tech at Mercedes Benz Stadium on Labor Day night. Louisville plays at Syracuse to kickoff ACC play on September 3.
West Virginia will play at Pittsburgh on September 1 to renew the backyard brawl and begin Labor Day weekend. Miami at Texas A&M should be the marquee non-conference game for the ACC in 2022. The majority of ACC teams begin conference play week five on October 1. Alford discussed ACC football.
"“I’m going to get in a lot of trouble for this one, but I’ll be a Miami fan when they play Texas A&M in a couple of weeks. In any out-of-conference games, you got to root for our conference. It not only helps our conference, it helps what everybody feels about our conference. At the end of the day you’ve got to win games.We’ve got to invest as a conference in football.”"
Florida State will play at Miami on November 5. The Seminoles ended a four-game losing streak to the Hurricanes last season. The Miami football team received eight votes to finish third in the voting for ACC champion in 2022. Florida State tied for seventh with North Carolina receiving two votes as ACC Champion.
Miami received 98 votes and 1,036 points in voting from the media to win the ACC Coastal Division. Florida State is picked to finish fifth in the ACC Atlantic with two votes to win the division and 509 points. Miami begins the season ranked 16th in the AP Top 25 and 17th in the USA Today coach’s poll.