Miami slides into the top 3 of the AP Top 25 poll and learns how lonely it is at the top of the ACC

It took half of the season, but the Miami Hurricanes are finally in the top three of the AP Top 25 poll. Their slow ascension has been the result of the lack of shake-ups at the top of the rankings, but that all changed in Week 6 when Texas lost to Oklahoma and dropped from the No. 1 spot.

Miami comes in at No. 3 behind Georgia and Notre Dame. Ohio State and Indiana round out the top five. Alabama stays at No. 6, despite losing at home to Georgia because the Crimson Tide does not actually lose games; it just has some games where the time runs out when it has fewer points than the opponent. Texas drops to No. 7 while BYU, Ole Miss and Texas Tech complete the top 10.

Miami is No. 3, but where's the rest of the ACC?

The Hurricanes were enjoying a bye week and certainly hoped to see the conference represent itself in their absence. But Pitt, who was ranked No. 25 last week, lost to North Carolina and was bumped out of the polls. Duke, which was previously undefeated, lost to Georgia Tech and is only receiving five votes this week. Virginia Tech, which started the season 4-0, lost to Cal on the road.

Yeah, it's really hard to defend this conference when the teams that are supposed to win these games and help establish some sort of hierarchy end up losing them at the worst possible time. 

The good news is Wake Forest is finally going to be treated like the quality win it was all along. A 38-14 win over NC State finally got the voters' attention as the Demon Deacons moved into No. 21. SMU did not play this week and stayed at No. 24, so it is still three teams from the ACC in the polls. It feels like that is going to be where this conference is going to be for the rest of the season.

Miami has Pitt (October 24), Duke (November 14) and Virginia Tech (November 21) left on the schedule. It would be nice for one of these teams to get hot, so the Hurricanes have another ranked team on the schedule. 

Unfortunately, there just are not a lot of options for quality teams in the conference. Louisville was expected to be good, and the Cardinals might get on a run, but they are 3-3 right now. Clemson looked overmatched against quality competition, and FSU has a Mike Norvell problem.

I do not want to say that the ACC is Miami and the 16 dwarves, but I cannot deny that perception exists among the college football media. It is probably justified. 

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