By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina is well on its way to earning the last ACC Coastal Division title, and the Tar Heels are also getting plenty of national attention along the way.

UNC (7–1, 4–0 ACC) jumped four spots to No. 17 in the latest AP Top 25 poll released Sunday, marking the first time the program has earned at least a No. 17 ranking at some point in three consecutive seasons since doing it four years in a row under Coach Dick Crum from 1979 to 1983.

Carolina — which peaked at No. 14 in 1979, No. 6 in 1980, No. 3 in 1981 and No. 5 in 1982 — was No. 5 in Week 5 in 2020 and No. 10 in Week 4 last season.

That stretch includes Carolina’s last ACC title in 1980, when Mack Brown was 29 years old and Iowa State’s offensive coordinator.

During Brown’s first stint in Chapel Hill, UNC was ranked No. 18 in 1992, No. 12 in 1993 and No. 13 in 1994 but that stretch didn’t top the four-year run of Crum’s teams.

UNC jumped six spots in the USA Today Coaches poll to No. 15.

The first College Football Playoff ranking of the season will be released Tuesday night at 7 o’clock (ESPN).

Toss this around with your morning cereal. There is a scenario where Mack Brown is dancing in the UNC lockerroom over … a CFP berth.

— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) October 30, 2022

“For our team, it doesn’t matter till it’s over,” Brown said after his team’s fourth consecutive victory. “Nobody says where were you ranked in the eighth week of the season.”

With two more wins, the Tar Heels will get a shot at likely facing No. 5 Clemson (8–0, 6–0) in the ACC championship game in Charlotte on Dec. 3 to end the league title drought. They could clinch the division title with a win at noon Saturday at Virginia (ACC Network) if Duke loses to Boston College, Florida State beats Miami and Virginia Tech beats Georgia Tech.

UNC opened as an 11-point favorite over Virginia (3–5, 1–4).

After Saturday’s game, Brown said he’d tell his team Sunday that he doesn’t want the Coastal Division, the ACC championship or the polls to be mentioned.

“Thank you for giving us some recognition,” Brown said he’d tell his team. “Thank you for playing so hard. Thank you for making this ride so much fun. But let’s not be stupid. Let’s don’t talk about things that are very unimportant. What’s important is you guys that are hurt get well or you guys behind them step up and let’s improve the things that we’re not doing well. Let’s be mature enough to say that we did these things well; we’re still not here. We got to get these things fixed to get where we want to go.”

Two ESPN projections have Carolina playing in the Dec. 30 Orange Bowl. Kyle Bonagura has the Tar Heels facing Alabama and Mark Schlabach has them meeting Illinois.

Helping Carolina move up in the poll in addition to its come-from-behind 42–24 homecoming win over Pittsburgh were losses by Oklahoma State (fell from No. 9 to No. 18 after a 48–0 loss to Kansas State), Wake Forest (fell from No. 10 to No. 20 after a 48–21 loss at Louisville), Syracuse (fell from No. 16 to No. 22 after a 41–24 loss to Notre Dame), Kentucky (fell from No. 19 to unranked after a 42–20 loss to now No. 2 Tennessee) and Cincinnati (fell from No. 20 to unranked after a 25–21 loss to Central Florida).

Voting UNC the highest in the AP poll at No. 11 is Stephen Hargis of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. Chris Murray of Nevada Sports Net has the Tar Heels No. 12 and Adam Zucker of CBS Sports Network has them No. 13.

Joe Giglio of WCMC (99.9 The Fan) in Raleigh is one of five voters, along with ESPN’s Rece Davis, who have UNC No. 14. Giglio has Wake Forest No. 18 and N.C. State No. 22.

David Thompson, the N.C. State beat writer for the Fayetteville Observer and the USA Today Sports Network, is one of 14 voters who have UNC No. 16. He has Wake Forest No. 20 and N.C. State No. 25. Steve Wiseman, the Duke beat writer for The News & Observer, has UNC No. 17, Wake Forest No. 20 and N.C. State No. 21.

The only AP voter who left Carolina off their ballot is Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Texas. Seven voters left UNC off their ballots the previous week.

According to ESPN, UNC has the 14th best “strength of record,” a metric that reflects the chance that an average Top 25 team would have a team’s record or better, given the schedule.

The Tar Heels haven’t faced a team ranked at the time of the game all season and only Wake Forest (6–2, 2–2) and No. 21 N.C. State (6–2, 2–2) are ranked among the teams left in their regular-season schedule.

AP Top 25

Rank	Team	Change	Poll points (1st-place votes)
1	Georgia (8–0)	—	1,528 (30)
2	Ohio State (8–0)	—	1,500 (15)
2	Tennessee (8–0)	+1	1,500 (18)
4	Michigan (8–0)	—	1,378
5	Clemson (8–0)	—	1,312
6	Alabama (7–1)	—	1,258
7	TCU (8–0)	—	1,220
8	Oregon (7–1)	—	1,135
9	USC (7-1)	+1	1,010
10	UCLA (7-1)	+2	979
11	Ole Miss (8–1)	+4	905
12	Utah (6–2)	+2	876
13	Kansas State (6–2)	+9	772
14	Illinois (7–1)	+3	741
15	LSU (6–2)	+3	679
16	Penn State (6–2)	-3	641
17	North Carolina (7–1)	+4	542
18	Oklahoma State (6–2)	-9	513
19	Tulane (7–1)	+4	455
20	Wake Forest (6–2)	-10	388
21	N.C. State (6–2)	+3	285
22	Syracuse (6–2)	-6	205
23	Liberty (7–1)	—	136
24	Oregon State (6–2)	—	129
25	UCF (6–2)	—	111

Others receiving votes: Texas 58, Kentucky 57, Maryland 36, Cincinnati 32, Notre Dame 24, Washington 12, Arkansas 11, Baylor 9, Coastal Carolina 8, Florida State 8, Troy 7, Mississippi State 5, Boise State 4, East Carolina 2, South Carolina 2, Louisville 1, UTSA 1.

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USA Today Coaches Top 25

Rank	School	Record	Poll points	First-place votes	Previous rank	Change	High/ low
1	Georgia	8–0	1,552	45	1	—	1/3
2	Ohio State	8–0	1,505	13	2	—	2/3
3	Tennessee	8–0	1,455	5	3	—	3/NR
4	Michigan	8–0	1,391	0	4	—	3/6
5	Clemson	8–0	1,315	0	5	—	4/5
6	Alabama	7–1	1,262	0	6	—	1/6
7	TCU	8–0	1,182	0	7	—	7/NR
8	Oregon	7–1	1,118	0	8	—	8/24
9	Southern Cal	7–1	1,018	0	11	+2	6/15
10	Mississippi	8–1	973	0	12	+2	7/24
11	UCLA	7–1	937	0	15	+4	10/NR
12	Utah	6–2	874	0	14	+2	8/19
13	Illinois	7–1	767	0	18	+5	13/NR
14	Kansas State	6–2	713	0	22	+8	14/NR
15	North Carolina	7–1	630	0	21	+6	15/NR
16	Penn State	6–2	602	0	13	-3	10/NR
17	LSU	6–2	596	0	20	+3	17/NR
18	Oklahoma State	6–2	471	0	9	-9	7/18
19	Wake Forest	6–2	437	0	10	-9	10/21
20	N.C. State	6–2	386	0	23	+3	10/23
21	Tulane	7–1	369	0	24	+3	21/NR
22	Syracuse	6–2	188	0	16	-6	14/NR
23	Liberty	7–1	147	0	NR	+4	23/NR
24	Kentucky	5–3	109	0	17	-7	8/24
25	Central Florida	6–2	89	0	NR	+12	25/NR

Dropped out: No. 19 Cincinnati; No. 25 South Carolina. Also receiving votes: Oregon State 71; Maryland 64; Texas 55; Washington 52; Cincinnati 39; Coastal Carolina 25; Baylor 14; Notre Dame 11; Boise State 11; Louisville 10; Arkansas 10; South Carolina 9; Mississippi State 8; Troy 6; Texas-San Antonio 4.

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ACC standings

	ACC		All
Coastal	W	L	W	L
No. 21 North Carolina	3	0	6	1
Georgia Tech	2	2	3	4
Duke	2	2	5	3
Pittsburgh	1	2	4	3
Miami	1	2	3	4
Virginia	1	3	3	4
Virginia Tech	1	3	2	5

	ACC		All
Atlantic	W	L	W	L
No. 5 Clemson	6	0	8	0
No. 16 Syracuse	3	1	6	1
No. 20 Wake Forest	2	1	6	1
Florida State	2	3	4	3
Louisville	2	3	4	3
No. 24 N.C. State	1	2	5	2
Boston College	1	4	2	5

Last Thursday’s result
Virginia 16, Georgia Tech 9
Last Saturday’s results
Clemson 26, Syracuse 21
Wake Forest 43, Boston College 15
Duke 45, Miami 21
Louisville 24, Pittsburgh 10
Thursday’s game
Virginia Tech at N.C. State (12-point favorite), 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Saturday’s games
Notre Dame (2-point favorite) at Syracuse, noon, ABC
Boston College (10-point favorite) at Connecticut, noon, CBSSN
Georgia Tech at Florida State (18-point favorite), noon, ACC Network
Miami (3-point favorite) at Virginia, 12:30 p.m., ACC Network Extra (ESPN3)
Wake Forest (5-point favorite) at Louisville, 3:30 p.m., ACC Network
Pittsburgh at North Carolina (2-point favorite), 8 p.m., ACC Network

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Date	Month/day	Time/score	Location	Opponent (current rank)	TV/ record
	August
27	Saturday	W, 56–24	Home	Florida A&M	1–0
	September
3	Saturday	W, 63–61	Boone	Appalachian State	2–0
10	Saturday	W, 35–28	Atlanta	Georgia State	3–0
24	Saturday	L, 45–32	Home	No. 19 Notre Dame	3–1
	October
1	Saturday	W, 41–10	Home	Virginia Tech	4–1, 1–0 ACC
8	Saturday	W, 27–24	Miami Gardens, Fla.	Miami	5–1, 2–0 ACC
15	Saturday	W, 38–35	Durham	Duke	6–1, 3–0 ACC
29	Saturday	W, 42–24	Home	Pittsburgh	7–1, 4–0 ACC
	November
5	Saturday	W, 31–28	Charlottesville	Virginia	8–1, 5–0 ACC
12	Saturday	W, 36–34	Winston-Salem	Wake Forest	9–1, 6–0 ACC
19	Saturday	L, 21–17	Home	Georgia Tech	9–2, 6–1 ACC
25	Friday	L, 30–27, 2 OTs	Home	No. 25 N.C. State	9–3, 6–2 ACC
	December		ACC championship
3	Saturday	L, 39–10	Charlotte	No. 10 Clemson	9–4
			Holiday Bowl
28	Wednesday	L, 28–27	San Diego	No. 15 Oregon	9–5

Photo via @GoHeels