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ESPN’s Bill Connelly updated his preseason SP+ ratings one final time this week, and NC State checks in at No. 64, which is actually a couple spots lower than the February SP+ projections. ... Hey, wait a minute, we haven’t even done anything since then! Someone fetch our lawyers!
Should note here that Bill included everybody—meaning the schools with canceled seasons are in there—for the sake of consistency. If you remove the teams that aren’t playing, then by my count, NC State leaps up to No. 43. That’s much better! Great offseason, guys, love the improvement, great to see the work paying off already.
The ratings also include win total projections, which for State is 4.6. Or a 5-6 season, basically. That might be all it takes to get into a bowl game this year, who knows. I’d rather see the Pack win six games just to be safe, though. Six wins and we can call it a solid bounce-back year.