On Saturday, No. 12 Miami blew out No. 22 Pittsburgh 38-7 in front of 49,845 fans at Acrisure Stadium.
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With the win, the Hurricanes improved to 10-2 and 6-2 in ACC play. No. 18 Virginia cemented its place in the ACC Championship Game with a 27-7 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday.
No. 21 SMU had an opportunity to meet the Cavaliers in the championship, but the Mustangs were having trouble against California, trailing 31-14 early in the fourth quarter. With a loss, SMU would set up a five-way tie with Miami, Pitt, Georgia Tech and Duke at 6-2 in conference play.
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Duke, with a 7-5 overall record, would win the tiebreaker and have the opportunity to play Virginia in the ACC championship with a chance to make the College Football Playoff.
However, some college football insiders suggested the ACC could disregard the tiebreaker to give its highest-ranked team a better chance to make the CFP.
“This might be an unpopular take … but if I’m the ACC and Cal upsets SMU, I override the tiebreakers and put Miami in the ACC championship game against Virginia,” Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports posted on X.
Gaby Urrutia of 247 Sports agreed.
“Apparently the Big Ten has done this before,” Urrutia posted. “Duke and Miami have the same conference record, two common opponents (Miami would own point differential by wide margin), and is actually a team qualified to compete in the post-season.”
The Big Ten put Ohio State in over Indiana for its conference championship game in 2020 after the team went 5-0. The Hoosiers went 5-1. Before the shortened season, the conference had a six-game minimum rule in place for the championship contest.
The Buckeyes went on to defeat Northwestern 22-10 in the championship before making the College Football Playoff.
The Big Ten made the decision based on a “competitive analysis.”
“The decision was based on a competitive analysis which determined that Ohio State would have advanced to the Big Ten football championship game based on its undefeated record and head-to-head victory over Indiana regardless of a win or loss against Michigan,” the Big Ten wrote in a statement, via The Athletic.
It’ll be interesting to see if the ACC does that in favor of Miami after the result of the Week 14 schedule. The Hurricanes have a better chance of making the CFP than Duke.
The worst-case scenario for the ACC is that Duke wins the championship over Virginia and the CFP selection committee puts in five higher-ranked conference champions, keeping the ACC out of the playoff.
For more on the NCAA, head to Newsweek Sports.
