Poll position

Doesn't seem like long ago when sportswriters who covered the ACC spent the summer writing about Florida State's "veneer of supremacy" and wondering how many centuries it would take for the rest of the conference to chisel some chinks into it.

Seemed like such a hopeless cause in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but we wrote about it anyway because ... well ... we needed something to write about.

Now we spend our summers wondering when the Seminoles will get it back. It's simply astounding that Florida State hasn't won an ACC title since 2005, but Jimbo Fisher appears to have the program on the way back after last year's 10-win season, Atlantic Division crown and convincing victory over South Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

(By the way, how many Florida State fans still think it was a bad idea for Bobby Bowden to hang it up instead of sticking around as long as he darn well pleased? I recall receiving some fairly animated correspondence from Seminoles backers after suggesting he was a mere figurehead and needed to go. But maybe those were Clemson fans in disguise who liked beating the Seminoles every year.)

The ACC's preseason media poll was released yesterday at the conference's annual media gathering in Pinehurst, N.C. If you put any stock into what the media thinks -- and I urge you not to -- the Seminoles will win the Atlantic and return to ACC supremacy by defeating Virginia Tech in the title game.

It doesn't sound like many Clemson fans are protesting the belief that Florida State is firmly on the rebound. Fisher is loaded with talent entering his second year, and a friendly cross-division slate (they get Duke and Virginia) makes FSU the sensible choice.

You still wonder, though. E.J. Manuel has plenty of big-game experience, but will he be granted the same decision-making authority Christian Ponder was accorded the past three seasons? How will a shaky offensive line hold up? And how might things turn if the Seminoles lose for the fifth consecutive time in Death Valley on Sept. 24?

Clemson appears to have more question marks than Florida State, and that -- plus last year's ugly 6-7 mark for the Tigers -- is why the Seminoles are considered the favorite.

But Clemson fans should be heartened by the recent history of these preseason polls. The media tend to congregate on the Seminoles' bandwagon, and the Seminoles tend to disappoint.

The Tigers haven't exactly distinguished themselves as overachievers in the 12-team ACC. But as my friend Patrick Stevens of The Washington Times notes here, Florida State has the worst record of aligning predictions with reality.

So maybe the real supreme being in the ACC Atlantic is parity.

LW