The lightest week of the season -- just four games and one of those is Thursday night. Six ACC teams have a bye this week.

Still, a very important weekend in the Coastal race. Thursday night's game is very important -- it's virtually an elimination game for Miami -- after beating four nobodies to open the season -- and being proclaimed one of the nation's top teams -- the 'Canes have lost two straight in the ACC (although, to be fair, both were close losses). If Virginia Tech wins, they remain the frontrunner in the division (they have the tiebreaker vs. UNC). UNC should keep winning at Virginia this weekend.

The games:

Thursday night
Miami at Virginia Tech (7 p.m., ESPN)

Saturday
N.C. State at Louisville (ABC, noon)
Syracuse at Boston College (ACC Network, 12:30 p.m.)
North Carolina at Virginia (3 p.m., RSN)

NC State at Louisville could be interesting in view of State's strong effort at Clemson last week and Louisville's struggles with Duke. And Syracuse at BC is not without interest -- the Eagles are still working on as 11-game ACC losing streak (to go with a 20-game losing streak in ACC basketball). The Eagles better snap it this week -- their next three ACC games are at NC State, Louisville and at FSU ... their last chance comes when they finish up at Wake Forest.