The ACC may overhaul its tiebreaker after No. 10 Miami was shut out of the conference title game.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday that the league will review its tiebreaker rules after Duke won a five-set tiebreaker to finish second in the conference. The Blue Devils went on to defeat Virginia to win the ACC Championship, but were eliminated from the College Football Playoff due to their 8-5 record.
The Miami Heat controversially swapped spots with Notre Dame in the final set of playoff standings, becoming the last regular team standing. The shift caused a rift between the ACC and Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are part of the ACC in all sports except football, and the football team has a scheduling league with that conference.
advertise
When Phillips rhetorically asked if the conference needed to delve into the tiebreaker process to determine the second-place team, the answer was that, given the size of the ACC, that was a fairly likely outcome.
After the 2023 season, the Pac-12 folded and the ACC was joined by Cal and Stanford. SMU also joined. Their arrival brings the number of teams in the conference to 17, and the ACC moves away from a conference format.
ACC teams have played just eight conference games this season, meaning each team in the conference has only played seven of a possible 16 opponents. Five teams ended a game trailing Virginia 6-2, and five others were tied 4-4.
With not many opportunities to take advantage of head-to-head tiebreakers, it’s clear that the ACC — or other conferences like the SEC, Big Ten or Big 12 — must delve into tiebreakers for a crucial reason.
advertise
Duke leads SU, Miami, Pitt and Georgia Tech into the conference title game after SMU lost its final game of the season, falling 6-2. If the Broncos beat Cal in Week 14, things will be simple in the ACC. SMU will play Virginia.
Instead, conferences must use a three-team tiebreaker rule among five teams that don’t have many common opponents or games against each other. Duke only played one team (Georgia Tech) that was tied in the standings. Miami played two games (SMU and Pitt).
This allows the league to go through the first four tiebreakers and then use the combined winning percentage of a team’s conference opponents as the decisive tiebreaker. Virginia was also the deciding factor in this tiebreaker. The Blue Devils are the only team to go 6-2 against the Cavaliers.
advertise
The ACC will play nine conference games in 2026, but that only slightly reduces the likelihood of needing to go deep into a tiebreaker. Teams still don’t play in nearly half the conference in a given year, and it’s hard to find common games.
Drastically changing the tiebreakers can be an arduous process and could even affect CFP rankings. In Conference USA, Tulane won the conference’s top three-team tiebreaker and hosted the conference championship game against North Texas as it held top of the postseason standings entering the final week of the season. Although CFP rankings are arbitrary, they at least provide a simple measure. And, as far as the ACC is concerned, Miami will be in the division title game.