Sep 14, 2016 4 min read

The Atlantic Coast Conference is off to one of its strongest starts in league history.

Often maligned as the weakest of the Power Five leagues, the ACC has three teams ranked in the top 10, tied with the Big Ten for the most. Its 17-5 record in non-conference games is the third-best start in ACC history.

The conference, and two of its biggest stars, will take center stage in college football Saturday at noon when second-ranked Florida State (2-0) and No. 10 Louisville (2-0, 1-0 ACC) meet in Kentucky.

It’s the first meeting of two top 10 teams from the ACC since Florida State and Miami in 2013.

“I think it’s critical,” Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said of what the showdown means to the ACC. “It adds to … credibility.”

The game features Florida State redshirt freshman quarterback Deondre Francois and Louisville’s dual-threat dynamo Lamar Jackson, who has put his name into early Heisman Trophy talk with 13 touchdowns in two record-setting games.

Jackson was responsible for eight touchdowns by halftime in the Cardinals’ season-opening win against Charlotte, and followed up by running for four scores and passing for another in a 62-28 victory at Syracuse. With 411 passing yards and 199 rushing yards against the Orange, he became just the second 400-150 player in FBS history.

Francois, in his first start for the Seminoles, had 478 yards of offense in guiding Florida State to its largest come-from-behind victory in a 45-34 triumph against No. 19 Mississippi.

In a league recently viewed as Florida State, Clemson and everyone else, Fisher believes it’s time for people outside the ACC to take another look and realize other teams in the league can compete with everyone.

The Seminoles beat Auburn for the 2013 national championship. Clemson made the title game last season, losing to Alabama, but Tigers quarterback Deshaun Watson was a prominent name in early Heisman talk this year as well.

“It is great, great football in the ACC and I’m glad that people are starting to see it,” Fisher said. He said some of the perspective of ACC football is based on the league’s reputation that took hold long ago and is difficult to shake.

“I just think it’s something that over time has been ingrained and it will take time to get it out,” he said.

Seminoles center Alec Eberle grew up in Mechanicsville, Va., at a time when Virginia Tech was the league’s marquee program. The Hokies won four championships in their first seven years in the league, from 2004-10, but numerous teams have shown improvement since.

“Over the last couple years, the ACC has come up so much in the football world,” Eberle said. “Florida State was up there and Virginia Tech, but now Louisville, UNC is getting real big, Duke has gotten better over the years.”

NCAA turns up pressure on North Carolina over bathroom law: The NCAA’s decision to pull seven championships out of North Carolina ratchets up the pressure on this college sports-crazy state to repeal its law on bathroom use by transgender people.

Unlike the recent one-time cancellations by the NBA and various rock stars, the move by college sports’ governing body could make moderate and conservative voters question whether the price tag for the law has finally become too high.

Economic development officials said the effect of the NCAA’s action goes well beyond the projected $20 million in lost revenue from the cancellation of the 2016-17 basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, lacrosse and golf events.

The law passed in March requires transgender people to use restrooms in schools and state government buildings that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate.

It also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections.

The Obama administration is suing the state over the measure, calling it discriminatory. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and GOP leaders are defending it as a means of protecting the privacy and safety of women and girls.