Each week throughout the college football regular season, SyracuseRoundtable will bring you the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) power rankings.

The rankings will help give a clearer picture as to how the top teams in the conference stack up against one another. In December, the top two teams will compete in Charlotte, N.C., not for just the conference title, but a berth in the College Football Playoff.  

With November serving as the final month of conference play, the path to an ACC title game spot or at least a bowl game berth, is becoming clearer for all teams in the league.

Here's what you need to know in advance of Week 8:

The Hurricanes rolled in an another blowout win, this time over the Pittsburgh Panthers, 52-23. Malachi Toney, Mark Fletcher, Darian Mensh continue to lead a top-tier offensive group. The Hurricanes play the North Carolina Tar Heels this week before a highly- anticipated non-conference game against Notre Dame on Nov. 7. The Hurricanes path to Charlotte becomes more and more likely each weekend. 

Like Miami above them, SMU won in an impressive fashion in Week 7. The Mustangs defeated California 59-20. The victory included 42 unanswered points for the Mustangs in the second half.

Saturday's game against Syracuse may not be as easy for SMU. The Mustangs are listed by some sportsbooks as a 9.5-point favorite, but that may be surprising to some fans when you consider the recent history among the programs.

The Demon Deacons stay steady at No. 3. Wake Forest takes on Virginia following the Cavaliers' loss to Duke from Friday night. The loser is likely out of the mix for playing in Charlotte.

The Cardinals benefit from being on a bye week last week. Our previous No. 6 moves up to No. 4 after Clemson's loss. Louisville is a big favorite this weekend against Stanford. 

A win over Clemson helps James Franklin and his squad move into the top five this week. The Hokies will need some teams above them to lose in order to earn a trip to Charlotte.

No. 6 Virginia 

No. 7 Florida State

No. 8 Duke

No. 9 Clemson

No. 10 Boston College

After being last the past two weeks, Syracuse jumps all the way to the No. 11 spot? Some could argue the jump is too extreme for the Orange, but we do not. Each of the teams below the Orange have played worse than the Orange over the last month, or have been beaten by Syracuse this season. Syracuse has a chance to prove it is better than North Carolina State when they play in a few weeks too.

No. 12 North Carolina

No. 13 Pittsburgh

No. 14 Stanford

No. 15 Georgia Tech

No. 16 California 

No. 17 North Carolina State 

After two Friday night games last weekend,  the ACC play all happens on Saturday, with three games in the noon ET window. 

The noon window features Syracuse hosting SMU, California hosting NC State and Boston College visiting Duke. 

A 3:15 matchup features Stanford visiting Louisville, while a 3:45 affair is Virginia visiting Wake Forest

Clemson visits Florida State at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Pittsburgh then hosts Georgia Tech and North Carolina hosts Miami. Both kickoffs close Saturday night action at 7:30 p.m. ET.