For much of the College Football Playoff era, the ACC has staked its success on conference standard-bearer Clemson. The Tigers won the league again in 2024, claiming their eighth ACC title in the last 10 years and making the CFP for the seventh time. Only Alabama (eight appearances) has reached the playoff more often, a big reason why Dabo Swinney is not just the undisputed No. 1 coach in the ACC, but a top-three coach nationally.
How coaches should stack up behind Swinney is open for debate — not only against each other, but also compared to the rest of the Power Four. In our CBS Sports Coach Rankings from May — a compilation of ballots from experts at CBS Sports and 247Sports — Swinney was the only ACC coach ranked inside the top 15 nationally. Four coaches landed between 15–25, three more appeared in the 30s, and a total of 11 coaches were ranked inside the top 50.
That kind of consolidation in the middle of the rankings highlights a conference full of respected coaches — but with few winning the argument as members of college football’s elite.
Below, we’ve pulled the full rankings from Nos. 1–68 and broken out only the ACC coaches. Each coach’s national ranking is listed, along with their position among ACC peers from last year’s voting. There are three new additions to the list — most notably North Carolina’s Bill Belichick — as well as a few coaches nearing the hot seat and significant movement following the 2024 season. There’s plenty of volatility in the middle tier, with many coaches bunched closely together — at least once you get past Swinney at No. 1.
Complete Power Four coach rankings: 1-25 | 26-68
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2025 ACC coach rankings
1. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
National rank: No. 3
Since Swinney’s breakthrough with an ACC title in 2011, every Clemson season has ended with a top 25 ranking, and all but one of those 14 campaigns have included at least 10 wins. Swinney has guided the Tigers to nine ACC titles, two national championships and two national runner-up finishes. During ACC Media Days, Swinney noted that every four-year player who has joined the program since he was named full-time head coach has experienced a championship — a remarkable statement on the level of sustained dominance he has established within the conference. Last year: No. 1 in ACC
2. Jeff Brohm, Louisville
National rank: No. 17
Leading Purdue to four bowl games in six years put Brohm on the map as one of the top coaches in college football. When he arrived at his alma mater, expectations were high. Yet, he has met them with 19 wins in two seasons and a 12-4 mark in ACC play. Brohm has leaned on the transfer portal to hit the ground running rather than go through a rebuild. With him at the helm, Louisville is expected to contend for the ACC title nearly every year. Last year: No. 4 in ACC
3. Mario Cristobal, Miami
National rank: No. 20
Cristobal rose from No. 8 to No. 6 among ACC coaches last season. Now he’s up to No. 3 after delivering a 10-win season that had Miami knocking on the door of the CFP. Despite that success, the Hurricanes fell short of the ACC Championship Game, leaving some unfinished business for a team that returns much of its core in 2025. Still, it marked Miami’s first double-digit win season since 2017 — a milestone that warrants this positive re-evaluation. Last year: No. 6 in ACC
4. Rhett Lashlee, SMU
National rank: No. 22
Any notion that SMU would suffer a setback after moving from the American to the ACC was quickly dispelled when Lashlee led the Mustangs to an 8-0 regular-season conference record in 2024. That success moved him up 23 spots in the national rankings and five among ACC coaches, as SMU is now one of only three programs in the league to make the CFP. Like Brohm, Lashlee has long carried a positive reputation as an offensive mind, but his elevation into the upper tier of coaches stems from his success using modern roster-construction tools. Last year: No. 9 in ACC
5. Mike Norvell, Florida State
National rank: No. 25
This is a predictable drop for Norvell, who entered last offseason coming off a 13-0 regular season and an ACC championship only to follow it with a 2-10 campaign that included just one conference win. While the momentum of a 23-4 run across 2022-23 had him climbing in the coaching rankings, the reality of a 33-27 overall record (including 20-20 in ACC play) has reset the market on his stock. Last year: No. 2 in ACC
6. Brent Key, Georgia Tech
National rank: No. 30
The overall record (18-16) doesn’t tell the story. To really appriciate Key’s time at Georgia Tech, you have to take into account the big moments he has provided for fans since he took over in the middle of the 2022 season. Key has six wins against teams ranked in the top 25 and pushed Georgia to the brink in an eight-overtime thriller last year. The Yellow Jackets are 14-9 against ACC opponents under Key and the combination of conference success with those high-end wins has him moving up 24 spots nationally and seven spots among his ACC peers. Last year: No. 13 in ACC
7. Dave Doeren, NC State
National rank: No. 31
Last season was a disappointment for the Wolfpack. They entered the year with ACC dark horse buzz but finished 6-7 after a loss to East Carolina in the Military Bowl. The setback snapped a streak of four straight seasons with at least eight wins and marked the third-worst win total of Doeren’s 12-year tenure. NC State has a track record of exceeding expectations when overlooked, and after Doeren dropped 15 spots in the national coach rankings, 2025 could be setting up as one of those bounce-back campaigns. Last year: No. 3 in ACC
8. Pat Narduzzi, Pitt
National rank: No. 37
It was a tale of two seasons for Pitt in 2024. The Panthers started 7-0, cracked the top 25 and then stumbled to six straight losses to close the year — including a bowl defeat to Toledo. The final result left coach Narduzzi’s ranking mostly unchanged. But the outlook is brighter than it was a year ago, when Pitt was trying to rebound from missing a bowl game in 2023. The Panthers’ win total is set at 6.5 wins, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Last year: No. 8 in ACC
9. Manny Diaz, Duke
National rank: No. 44
It’s a mild surprise Diaz didn’t climb higher in the rankings after an unexpected 9-3 regular season in his first year at Duke. That’s more wins than he ever posted in a single season at Miami — and it came after the Blue Devils were picked to finish 11th in the preseason media poll. If Diaz can get Duke back into the top half of the ACC standings in 2025 — this time with Tulane transfer Darian Mensah at quarterback — expect a bigger bump next offseason. Last year: No. 10 in ACC
10. Fran Brown, Syracuse
National rank: No. 46
No coach seized their opportunity in a more notable way than Brown. He successfully retained the best talent through a coaching transition and brought in portal additions to power a 10-win season and top-25 finish for the Orange in 2024. It was only the third time since 2000 that Syracuse has won 10 games in a season (2001, 2018). That success resulted in a 21-spot jump in the national rankings and seven-spot improvement in his ACC ranking. Last year: No. 17 in ACC
National rank: No. 50
O’Brien took over Boston College a bit late in the hiring cycle after Jeff Hafley left for a coordinator job in the NFL. Through that lens his debut season with the Eagles (a 7-5 regular season and T-8 finish in the ACC standings) should be considered “meeting expectations.” That seems to be the opinion shared by our voters as well, as the former Penn State and Houston Texans coach did not make any major year-to-year moves in the coach rankings. Last year: No. 12 in ACC
12. Bill Belichick, North Carolina
National rank: No. 54
In all our years of compiling the CBS Sports Coach Rankings, no profile has been more difficult to place than Belichick’s. On one hand, he’s considered one of the greatest coaches in NFL history with six Super Bowl titles. On the other, he hasn’t been involved in college football since playing at Wesleyan University in the 1970s. North Carolina is betting that Belichick’s leadership will translate to the college level. If it does, the cloud of doubt could lift quickly with a major jump in next year’s rankings. For now, he’s held back by his inexperience in the college game. Last year: N/A
13. Justin Wilcox, Cal
National rank: No. 55
Our voters see a coach in Wilcox who has been mostly steady during his time with Cal, carrying a 42-50 record into Year 9, and did not make any major adjustments to his ranking from 2024 to 2025. But internal upheaval has impacted the narrative as donors, the administration and new general manager Ron Rivera discuss and debate the future of the program. Cal saw a number of players leave via the transfer portal this offseason, including key contributors departing after spring practice, but Wilcox has pulled off big wins and proven doubters wrong before and could do so again in 2025. Last year: No. 14 in ACC
14. Jake Dickert, Wake Forest
National rank: No. 56
Clawson’s decision to step down opened a door for Dickert to make the jump to the ACC after three and a half years with Washington State. He won the job in Pullman with a strong finish as the team’s interim coach in 2021, but now he takes over a wildly different program on the other side of the country. A former defensive assistant under Craig Bohl at both North Dakota State and Wyoming, Dickert has achieved success at multiple levels. Still, he will need to get it done in the ACC before he makes a big jump among his peers. Last year: N/A in ACC
15. Brent Pry, Virginia Tech
National rank: No. 63
Pry says this year’s squad is the closest to his vision of Virginia Tech football that he had seen since arriving in Blacksburg ahead of the 2022 season. He inherited a difficult roster situation, so early struggles were understandable, but numerous losses in one-score games have left Pry with a 16-21 record overall despite back-to-back bowl appearances. Virginia Tech hasn’t been outclassed, but it’s had trouble finishing games against its toughest opponents. Last year: No. 11 in ACC
16. Tony Elliott, Virginia
National rank: No. 65
It’s a pressure-packed Year 4 for Elliott, as he holds an 11-23 record overall with no bowl appearances with the Wahoos. That urgency has come through in the program’s transfer portal activity. Virginia added more than 30 new players to the roster after taking just 22 portal players in the previous two years combined. If the new talent can’t get the program over the hump, there could be some difficult conversations in Charlottesville at the end of the season. Last year: No. 16 in ACC
17. Frank Reich, Stanford
National rank: No. 67
AFter Stanford fired Troy Taylor in the spring, general manager Andrew Luck turned to Rich to guide the team on an interim basis while administration weighs the program’s future. the longtime NFL veteran has no college coaching experience, and while voters respect his overall body of work, it’s tough to rank an interim coach — especially one new to the college level — ahead of too many others. Last year: N/A in ACC
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