With people bringing up some good info on new frosh, I amended my prior analysis of ACC returnees to also include new 5*'s and 4*'s weighted, plus returnees who were 5* or 4* in prior years if not already included among better returnees.
I am sure some people can take exception with an individual being included who they think should not, vice versa, or rated top versus medium etc, but these should be indicative of overall depth and strength.
Some results that surprised me, especially Wake and VA Tech being not nearly as strong as I expected:
Top 5* Med 4* Other 4* ACC
77-Duke 7 1 2 Singler, Scheyer, Smith, Thomas, Kelly, Mason Plumlee, Dawkins, Zoubek, Miles Plumlee, Czyz-?
75-UNC 4 7 0 Thompson, Ginyard, Davis, Henson, Graves, Drew II, Zeller, Strickland, MacDonald, Wear(2)
71-FSU 5 4 1 Alabi, Singleton, Reid, Kitchen, Snaer, Dulkys, Loucks, DeMercy, Shannon, Gibson
70-GA T 5 4 0 Lawal, Shumpert, Peacock, Bell, Favors, Miller, Storrs, Udolfia, Holsey
67-Clem 4 5 2 T. Booker, Stitt, Sykes, Jennings, Potter, Grant, Young, Johnson, D. Booker, Baciu-?
55-BC 5 1 0 Sanders, Trapani, Raji, Southern, Jackson, Paris
53-Mia 4 2 3 Collins, Dews, Hurdle, Scott, McGowan, Kirk, Dequan Jones Jackson, Rios
50-MD 3 4 0 Vasquez, Milbourne, Hayes, Bowie, Mosley, Tucker, Williams,
46-Wake 4 1 1 Aminu, MacFarland, Williams, Smith, Stewart, Walker
46-UVA 2 5 1 Landesberg, Scott, Baker, Zeglinski, Tucker, Jones, Spurlock, Brandenberg
45-NCS 2 5 0 Tracy Smith, Horner, Gonzales, Degand, Feguson, Painter, Howell
35-VA T 2 3 0 Delaney, Allen, Thompson, Hudson, Raines
Of course since not all 5*’s are created equal, and some like Lance play more like 4*’s, this method has some limitations.
The results though were pretty similar to the rankings summations in post above, first 5 even in same order, and most of the bottom being the same except perhaps Miami could move up slightly if guys like Dequan Jones and the freshman 5 * Duran Scott play well. Conversrely Maryland could come down a smidge.
So I used the weights above rather than the fan rankings in prior post to determine strength of schedule as objectively as I could as I could not how to otherwise factor in GA Tech who had only 2 ACC wins last season (see below)
Honors for most difficult ACC unbalanced schedule goes to GA Tech who must play all four of the top teams twice (UNC, FSU, Duke and Clemson). MD and BC are only other teams to have to play 3 of the top 4 twice.
UNC has the second most favorable schedule playing two of the three weakest teams per this analysis twice (NC St and VA Tech twice, UVA once). Other teams who play two of the weakest 3 are: MD, Wake, VA Tech, Miami and UVA).
GA Tech, FSU, Duke and Clemson, perhaps the 4 teams who challenge UNC for ACC champ) play all 3 weakest teams only once each. So UNC gets perhaps an extra win vis a vis the competition's one less versus so called “easy win” though anything can happen in ACC particularly on the road.
Strength ACC unbalanced Schedule
957 GA Tech plays all 4 of the top 4 teams twice UNC, FSU, Duke and Clemson and plays 4 of the bottom 5 only once (Wake (2), Miami, VA Tech, UVA and NC St)
948 Clemson must play FSU, Duke and GA Tech twice and plays all 5 of the bottom 5 only once (Wake, Miami, VA Tech, UVA and NC St)
946 MD must play FSU, Duke and Clemson twice
939 BC must play FSU, Duke and Clemson twice
934 Wake must play UNC and GA Tech twice
932 Duke must play UNC, Clemson and GA Tech twice and plays all 5 of the bottom 5 only once (Wake, Miami, VA Tech, UVA and NC St), has benefit of never having to play top rated 1-2 Duke.
930 VA Tech must play UNC, BC twice
916 FSU must play Clemson, GA Tech and BC twice and plays 4 of the bottom 5 only once (Wake, Miami(2), VA Tech, UVA and NC St)
899 NC St plays only UNC twice among top 6
891 Miami only plays FSU and BC twice of top 6
889 UNC only plays Duke and GA Tech of top 6 twice, has benefit of never having to play top rated 1-2 UNC.
875 UVA plays none of the top 6 teams twice could not be easier unless they could play UVA instead of Duke or UNC
So even without the benefit of getting to play themselves, the bottom teams Va Tech, Miami, UVA and NC State have some of the easiest schedules,
while the middle tier ACC teams have the toughest GA Tech, Clemson, MD, BC and Wake,
pretty much making FSU the main competition to Duke and UNC for top honors.