FSU was the only football school in the ACC at the time. It's a mystery how they even dropped the two Conference games over that time span that they did, particularly since neither were to Clemson. Their losses to Miami and/or Florida weren't enough to knock them out of the Top 5, and no one in the ACC was up to the task. Those schools weren't even prioritizing the same sport.
I get what you are saying and the ACC was obviously a weak football conference aside from FSU during that run but those Seminoles did very well against high end opponents as well. Over that 1987-2000 stretch they were:
- 11-4-1 against the Gators (including a lot of VERY good Gator teams)
- 7-7 against Miami
- 10-1 against Clemson
- 8-1 each against UVA and NCST
- 9-0 each against Maryland, Dook, GaTech, Wake, and UNC
- 6-0 against Tulane
- 5-0 against VaTech
- 4-0 each against USCe and UNL
- 3-1 each against USM and Auburn
- 3-0 each against LSU, Memphis, Louisville, and ECU
- 2-1 against Notre Dame
- 2-0 each against aTm, LaTech, MSU, Cuse, GaSo, USC, and BYU
- 1-0 each against MTSU, Furman, Cincy, Kansas, UCF, TxTech, Michigan, WMU, PSU, and tOSU
- 0-1 each against TN and OU