PINEHURST, N.C. -- If Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association members know their stuff, Virginia Tech will win the 2007 ACC football title. And it won't even be close.

Tech, which will almost certainly enter the season as the only ACC team ranked among the nation's top 15, was tabbed as an overwhelming favorite Monday to win the Coastal Division and capture its second title in four seasons in the conference.

Of the 83 ACSMA members who submitted a ballot, the Hokies were picked by all but six voters as the team to beat in the Coastal Division. All but 14 of the voters selected Tech to win the Dec. 1 ACC championship game in Jacksonville, Fla.

"I appreciate it," Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "I think all this tells us is we'd better get to work and be as good a football team as you people think we can be.

"Then again, I don't know where [2006 champion] Wake Forest was picked at last year, but I know where they finished up. And I think we were picked low [in 2004] when we won the championship."

When asked if he thought the picking media was "smart" for jumping on his team, Beamer laughed and said: "I'm not ever going to say that."

Florida State, which is coming off its first losing record in league games in its 15 years in the ACC, was picked to win the Atlantic Division. The Seminoles received 37 first-place votes, 12 more than second-place pick Boston College.

"That's OK, but what does it mean? Y'all get a medal or something?" FSU coach Bobby Bowden said, surveying the poll's final numbers.

"That's good but it doesn't mean nothing."

Clemson, which garnered eight first-place votes, was picked third. Wake Forest was selected fourth, and got 13 first-place votes. Maryland and North Carolina State were picked fifth and sixth.

When asked about Tech being such a top-heavy choice to rule the roost, Bowden said: "Sounds like they must be strong. I don't know that much about 'em. I'll start studying here before long."

Georgia Tech, which lost to Wake in last year's title game, received four first-place votes and was picked second in the Coastal. Miami, with two first-place votes, was third, followed by Virginia, North Carolina and Duke.

Before Tuesday's poll was released, Tech senior defensive tackle Carlton Powell said he didn't care to hear the results.

"Make no difference," Powell said. "Regardless of where y'all pick us, we were going to go into the season knowing we're going to end up No. 1."

Reserving judgment

In his first public comment on Michael Vick’s indictment for sponsoring a dogfighting operation,  Virginia Tech Frank Beamer chose to take the high road in regard to the ex-Hokies star.

“My response is I know Michael Vick as a very caring, a very concerned, a very good person, and I’m going to wait until this is all said and done to change any of my thoughts or to make any other observations really,” Beamer said.

Beamer said he hasn’t spoken to Vick since they both attended the NFL Draft in April. Beamer met NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the draft. He said he was impressed with Goodell’s hard-line stance on players who frequently find trouble.

“I told him, and I think most college coaches agree, that we’re proud that he’s taken that stance because I do feel it helps us in college ... the fact that bad behavior is not tolerated,” Beamer said. “I think when it happens at that level it helps us at our level enforce some things, too.”