...
By Matthew Davis
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
When the ACC football championship game matchup looks like two basketball powerhouses going for a prime spot in the Big Dance, there’s a problem.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips detailed on Wednesday how the conference has resolved the five-way tie for second place that catapulted a 7-5 Duke squad into last year's championship game. The ACC has a new tiebreaking system for the 17-team league, but Phillips’ consultative study shows how leaky that could still be.
Amid 10,000 simulated seasons, the ACC produced a variety of scenarios. With 17 teams that don’t all play each other and a variation in the number of conference games, the ACC could easily have problems again.
Read More on NCAA
"It warranted that kind of time and commitment, so that we can position ourselves to put those two best ACC teams forward," Phillips told reporters on Wednesday. "We'll continue to watch how this thing goes.”
The ACC needed the College Football Playoff committee to correct Duke’s upset of Virginia last year. Miami received the CFP bid because of its body of work, and the Hurricanes proved the committee right by making the national championship game.
...
That said, the CFP won’t rescue the ACC this time, as all Power Four conferences have an automatic bid to the 12-team gridiron dance. The ACC’s solution is a three-step system of head-to-head, overall success rankings and a commissioner’s draw, if needed.
"You have to do everything you can to position your championship game with those two best teams," Phillips said. "Head-to-head matters. That's always most important. Then we will look at the grouping and how teams fared. It will come down to the body of work. I'm looking forward to that."
Miami is the undisputed frontrunner again, but a midseason slipup with Clemson, Florida State or Virginia Tech could cause problems. Louisville, another contender to make the ACC title game, doesn’t play Miami, Virginia Tech or Clemson but plays FSU. The bottom line is that the ACC’s contenders don’t all play each other, and there could easily be a mess to sort out in late November.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines