You might want to bookmark this moment. There’s a very legitimate possibility the ACC changes its tiebreakers in future years.
Because of SMU’s stunning loss to Cal—coached by interim Nick Rolovich—the ACC ended the regular season with 7-1 Virginia and five 6-2 teams in Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, Pitt and SMU.
The short version: Duke emerged from the tiebreaker.
The long version: It happened, quite simply, because the Blue Devils lost to Georgia Tech and Virginia, giving them the highest opponent conference win percentage among tied teams. (To explain, just in case: Duke’s eight ACC opponents had a higher combined win percentage than the other four in the tiebreaker.)
As a result, 7-5 Duke—not 10-2 Miami, 9-3 Georgia Tech, 9-3 SMU or 8-4 Pitt, all ranked in the CFP Top 25 this week—is headed to Charlotte despite beating exactly zero of those programs.
Look, fantastic news for the Blue Devils! They walloped Wake Forest on Saturday and received the necessary help from Miami and Cal to sneak into the ACC Championship Game. Again, no apologies needed here!
But, to be blunt, this is a chaotic disaster for the ACC.
