No ACC football team has won the College Football Playoff since Clemson in 2018, but the conference has still pumped out top notch professional gridiron talent of late.
Look no further than the Tigers, who have the largest combined NFL salary cap hit of any ACC football team in 2025. Clemson alumni are collecting nearly $272 million in NFL money. Since 2020, head coach Dabo Swinney has coached seven first-round draft picks, from Isaiah Simmons and AJ Terrell on defense to No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne on offense.
BetCarolina.com, as part of our NC sports betting coverage, used OverTheCap.com data to develop these rankings of ACC football teams with the most to least cap dollars spent on players heading into the 2025 NFL season.
| Rank | Team | Cap Dollars (2025) |
| 1 | Clemson Tigers | $271,611,465 |
| 2 | NC State Wolfpack | $124,092,344 |
| 3 | Florida State Seminoles | $110,883,663 |
| 4 | Boston College Eagles | $93,684,006 |
| 5 | Stanford Cardinal | $85,263,911 |
| 6 | California Golden Bears | $82,032,153 |
| 7 | Louisville Cardinals | $81,980,034 |
| 8 | Virginia Tech Hokies | $66,032,630 |
| 9 | Miami Hurricanes | $66,015,559 |
| 10 | Pittsburgh Panthers | $60,061,004 |
| 11 | Wake Forest Demon Deacons | $36,609,976 |
| 12 | North Carolina Tar Heels | $34,103,090 |
| 13 | SMU Mustangs | $33,210,291 |
| 14 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | $25,748,768 |
| 15 | Duke Blue Devils | $17,881,291 |
| 16 | Syracuse Orange | $16,305,644 |
| 17 | Virginia Cavaliers | $11,378,953 |
Note: Current free agents were not included in this study. Bookmark BetCarolina.com for real money North Carolina sportsbook promo codes that you can use today.
Of the 17 schools that currently call the ACC home, none come close to Clemson’s current NFL salary cap figure of $271,611,465. The collective cap hit of former Tigers in 2025 is more than double the next closest figure, which is North Carolina State at $124,092,344.
Other NFL success stories from the ACC include Florida State ($110,883,663), Boston College ($93,684,006) and the league’s two West Coast newcomers, former Pac-12 programs Stanford ($85,263,911) and California ($82,032,153).
Of the four ACC members from the home of North Carolina sportsbook apps, the Wolfpack are the No. 1 team by a large margin. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons rank 11th out of 17 current league teams with a salary cap hit of $36,609,976 in 2025.
The other two North Carolina ACC members, UNC (12th overall, at $34,103,090) and Duke (15th overall, at $17,881,291), are leaps and bounds behind the likes of Clemson and NC State.
But both rank ahead of ACC bottom feeders Syracuse ($16,305,644 salary cap hit) and Virginia ($11,378,953), giving fans of the Tar Heels and Blue Devils a hint of a silver lining when it comes to pumping out NFL-level talent.
Check out our guide to betting on college football in North Carolina so you’re up to speed when the 2025 season starts in late August.
USA Today Network photo by Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer at BetCarolina.com specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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