Mack Brown kept confidence riding high with UNC fans in FanPulse’s inaugural season

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across college sports. Each week during the college sports season, we will send out polls to plug in fans to each team. Tar Heel fans can sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

Happy championship weekend everyone! Alright, so the Tar Heels aren’t competing for the ACC title this season in football. While it’s a little bit of a bummer, I think it’s fair to say that nobody truly expected them to pull such a feat off in year one of the Mack Brown era. However, to say that it was looking possible for a little while is a bit of an understatement, as the entire Coastal division was a bit of a dumpster fire when it was all said and done. The good news? The Tar Heels are going bowling! I also hear they beat the stuffing out of some team in Raleigh. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Right now, let’s take a look at this week’s FanPulse top 25 as well as the THB top 25:

Tar Heel Blog Top 25:

1.) LSU (12-0)
2.) Ohio State (12-0)
3.) Georgia (11-1)
4.) Clemson (12-0)
5.) Oklahoma (11-1)
6.) Utah (11-1)
7.) Baylor (11-1)
8.) Florida (10-2)
9.) Alabama (10-2)
10.) Auburn (9-3)
11.) Penn State (10-2)
12.) Wisconsin (10-2)
13.) Memphis (11-1)
14.) Oregon (10-2)
15.) Notre Dame (10-2)
16.) Minnesota (10-2)
17.) Boise State (11-1)
18.) App State (11-1)
19.) Michigan (9-3)
20.) Cincinnati (10-2)
21.) Iowa (9-3)
22.) Navy (9-2)
23.) Air Force (10-2)
24.) UAB (9-3)
25.) USC (8-4)

As we close out this season’s top 25 polls, it looks like both the national and the THB polls have the same four teams in the College Football Playoffs. The only difference in the results is that the THB poll would have Clemson playing LSU in the semifinal game instead of Georgia. We will find out fairly soon which teams will actually square off, so that will be something to keep an eye on once the conference championship games conclude.

Moving on to fan confidence, our readers finished the season with 90% confidence in the UNC football program following the beating the team delivered to NC State:

Truth be told, I don’t know how much better of a finish could’ve been drawn up for the Tar Heels this season. The team finished the regular season right at .500, they beat both Duke and NC State, they are bowl eligible, and 10 players were selected for All-ACC honors. In short, this year was the beginning of something that has the potential to be really special over the next few years, and it’s all thanks to Mack Brown breathing new life into a struggling program. 2020 should be a huge year both on the field as well as on the recruiting trail.

Switching gears to basketball, prior to the Ohio State game our readers’ confidence remained at a perfect 100%.

The strong level of confidence is in jeopardy after what happened this week, and quite honestly, it would be a little understandable. Long-term this team will be fine, and I have no doubt in my mind that they will compete for the ACC and get into the NCAA tournament. However, the short-term picture is a tiny bit depressing, as the team just lost Armando Bacot at least for a few weeks due to an ankle sprain. It’s a frustrating situation, but if anybody is able to figure out how to navigate the situation it’s Roy Williams.

What do you think of this week’s results? Let us know in the comments below. Also if you haven’t signed up for FanPulse yet follow the link at the beginning of this article and keep an eye on your e-mail every Sunday so that you can fill in your responses and make your voices heard. This will be the last week of the football top 25 poll, so from this point forward we’ll likely be focusing on basketball exclusively. No questions about Roy Williams’ timeouts will be slipped into the survey, I swear.

Go Heels!