‘Steal’ is an operative word: can something that belongs to no one be ‘stolen’? By any measure, Virginia Tech has owned the Coastal so far, and the ACC at large: VT has won the division twice in its three-year existence and blew out the eventual champion the year it finished second; that doesn’t even include the Hokies’ conference title in 2004, before the league split into divisions. Tech has by far the best record since joining the ACC and has finished higher than any other ACC team in the final polls all four years. If there is an overlord here worthy of claiming ownership, it’s the Hokies.

But things change quickly, and even if the window is small, the mass exodus of multi-year starters that formed the backbone of the mini-dynasty in Blacksburg throws the Coastal division wide open. Not that you’d know it from anything you read this summer, every bit of which, while nodding to its potential flaws, holds Tech will be back in the ACC Championship against unanimous Atlantic favorite Clemson. This is like the Immutable Law of the ACC going in.

Hey! I'mtrying to keep this thing on the DL, dammit!
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The Hokies are extremely vulnerable, though, much moreso on paper than the Tigers on the other side. The consistently awesome defense was gutted by graduation and one killer early departure (Brandon Flowers) and what few promising options existed among a completely untested collection of offensive skill players are all either battling injuries or will miss the season altogether. The Hokie love is based in part on trust in the "Beamer Ball" brand and in part on the extreme undesirability of backing mysterious Georgia Tech behind its new coach and funky offensive scheme, foundering, dysfunctional Miami, or similarly gutted Virginia, which lost not only the best two players from the nation’s sketchiest nine-game winner to the first round of the draft, but also its starting quarterback and best up-and-coming defender to suspensions.

That leaves the Tar Heels, whom everyone recognizes must be the insurgent team in the conference, but on whom no one is willing to stake his obligatory "crazy pick" by pulling the trigger on UNC to overtake the Hokies for the division. That, based on the last four years, is too crazy.

Or...is it? If the Heels are worth a flyer in second place -- and a majority of outlets so far think they are -- it’s worth considering how well they stack up directly against the largely rebuilding Hokies, and in a couple of cases, UNC comes out looking pretty well:

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