Size Matters

It’s the afternoon of August 28, and we still haven’t seen any ACC football. Thankfully, that will change in a matter of hours. But for now, we have no actual statistics or analysis on which to base any sort of rankings for ACC teams.

We do, however, have depth charts and rosters. And from those two, we can answer one trivial question to hold us over until football starts: What is the biggest team in the conference?

That’s at least one trivial question I had in my mind. So I sought the answer.

Using each team’s depth chart, I calculated the average size for each position group. That includes the average weight of the entire running back corps, the average height of the starting receivers, the average weight of the offensive line, the average weight of the defensive line, the average weight of the linebacker corps and the average height of the secondary.

Here’s the ranking for each position group:

Running Back Corps (weight)

  • 1. Pittsburgh, 230 lbs.
  • 2. Louisville, 218.6 lbs.
  • 3. Virginia Tech, 216.25 lbs.
  • 4. Miami, 209.33 lbs.
  • 5. NC State, 208 lbs.
  • 6. Syracuse, 207.75 lbs.
  • 7. Boston College, 206.2 lbs.
  • 8. Florida State, 203.25 lbs.
  • 9. Wake Forest, 202.5 lbs.
  • 10. Georgia Tech, 200 lbs.
  • 11. North Carolina, 198.75 lbs.
  • 12. Duke, 197.5 lbs.
  • 13. Virginia, 195 lbs.
  • 13. Clemson, 195 lbs.

Wide Receivers (height)

  • 1. Boston College, 6-4 1/3
  • 2. North Carolina, 6-3 1/3
  • 3. Pittsburgh, 6-2
  • 3. Wake Forest, 6-2
  • 3. Georgia Tech, 6-2
  • 6. Duke, 6-1 2/3
  • 7. Clemson, 6-1 1/3
  • 8. Florida State, 6-1
  • 8. Virginia, 6-1
  • 8. Virginia Tech, 6-1
  • 11. Syracuse, 6-0 2/3
  • 12. Miami, 6-0 1/3
  • 13. NC State, 6-0
  • 14. Louisville, 5-11 1/3

Offensive Line (weight)

  • 1. Florida State, 315.2 lbs.
  • 2. Pittsburgh, 314 lbs.
  • 3. Miami, 312 lbs.
  • 4. Duke, 307 lbs.
  • 5. Louisville, 306.2 lbs.
  • 6. NC State, 305.6 lbs.
  • 7. Clemson, 303 lbs.
  • 7. Wake Forest, 303 lbs.
  • 9. Virginia Tech, 301.2 lbs.
  • 10. Boston College, 299.2 lbs.
  • 11. Virginia, 299 lbs.
  • 12. North Carolina, 298 lbs.
  • 13. Syracuse, 297.8 lbs.
  • 14. Georgia Tech, 295 lbs.

Defensive Line (weight)

  • 1. Florida State, 310.5 lbs.
  • 2. Louisville, 291.33 lbs.
  • 3. Boston College, 288 lbs.
  • 4. Miami, 285.5 lbs.
  • 5. NC State, 278.5 lbs.
  • 6. Syracuse, 275 lbs.
  • 7. Pittsburgh, 273.75 lbs.
  • 7. Virginia, 273.75 lbs.
  • 9. Clemson, 272.5 lbs.
  • 10. Duke, 268.75 lbs.
  • 11. North Carolina, 263.75 lbs.
  • 12. Georgia Tech, 261.75 lbs.
  • 13. Virginia Tech, 258.75 lbs.
  • 14. Wake Forest, 257.5 lbs.

Linebackers (weight)

  • 1. Miami, 240.33 lbs.
  • 2. Wake Forest, 240 lbs.
  • 3. Louisville, 239.75 lbs.
  • 4. Virginia, 238.33 lbs.
  • 5. Boston College, 237.33 lbs.
  • 6. Duke, 235 lbs.
  • 7. Pittsburgh, 231.25 lbs.
  • 8. Florida State, 230.66 lbs.
  • 9. Clemson, 230 lbs.
  • 10. North Carolina, 225 lbs.
  • 11. Syracuse, 224.66 lbs.
  • 12. NC State, 223.5 lbs.
  • 13. Virginia Tech, 215.66 lbs.
  • 14. Georgia Tech, 214.66 lbs.

Defensive Backs (height)

  • 1. Virginia, 6-1 3/4
  • 2. NC State, 6-1
  • 3. Boston College, 6-0 1/2
  • 3. Clemson, 6-0 1/2
  • 3. Virginia Tech, 6-0 1/2
  • 6. Syracuse, 6-0 1/4
  • 7. Miami, 6-0
  • 7. Georgia Tech, 6-0
  • 9. Wake Forest, 5-11 4/5
  • 10. Florida State, 5-11 3/4
  • 11. North Carolina, 5-11 3/5
  • 12. Duke, 5-11 1/2
  • 13. Louisville, 5-11
  • 13. Pittsburgh, 5-11

By assigning values to each of these rankings (first place=14 points, last place=1 point), I was able to assemble a ranking of which teams are the biggest in the conference. Here they are, in order from biggest to smallest:

Size Rankings

  • 1. Miami
  • 2. Boston College
  • 3. Florida State
  • 4. Louisville
  • 5. Pittsburgh
  • 6. Virginia
  • 7. NC State
  • 8. Clemson
  • 9. Wake Forest
  • 10. Syracuse
  • 11. Virginia Tech
  • 12. Duke
  • 13. North Carolina
  • 14. Georgia Tech

Is this important? In some ways, yes, but mostly no. But it is somewhat interesting.

We can see that Miami will be bigger than their opponents in just about every matchup, except with its wide receivers. We can see that, save for its wide receivers, North Carolina will be going against bigger players in almost every matchup.

There’s a good chance you don’t find this interesting at all. If you fall into that line of thinking, don’t fret — the college football season is so, so close to being here.