The ACC has changed the way it will sort out its championship-game field, and that tweak could matter a lot for Miami.
Under the new tiebreaker setup, the league is putting more weight on resume and body of work when teams finish in the same neighborhood in the standings. Head-to-head still comes first, but after that the conference will lean on how teams performed across the regular season, with the “team's success ranking from sports source analytics” now serving as the third layer in the system. The ACC said that’s the same approach the CFP uses.
Conference officials made clear the goal is to get the two best teams into the title game.
"Team's success ranking from sports source analytics, we've used them in the past, it will be the third element of the tiebreaking system. It's what the CFP uses. I think you have to go and give an opportunity to place your two best teams.
What's changed this year is that there's an AQ awarded for The Power Four conferences. So you have to do everything you can to position your championship game with those two best teams.
So we're going to stay -- head-to-head matters. That's always most important. Then we will look at the grouping and how teams fared in the regular conference season.
It will come down to body of work. Who you play, when you play, the games you win, conference and non-conference will matter. That's a major change in college sports and certainly for the ACC.
I'm looking forward to that. I had just say this.
We talked a lot about it, used a lot of consultants, did 10,000 algorithms of different scenarios. It warranted that kind of time and commitment so that we can position ourselves to put those two best ACC teams forward.
Our schedule's not perfect coming up this year because we're going into that transition period where we're going to nine games, we have an uneven number of teams in the conference. 12 of our schools will play nine conference games, five of our schools will play eight. Everyone will play 10 Power Four games, so there's some balance there.
We'll continue to watch how this thing goes. But I feel incredibly strong that we have gotten to the right place with unanimity with our membership on what this new tiebreaking policy states."
For Miami, that’s a meaningful shift. In plain terms, if teams finish 8-1, 7-1 or 7-2, the one with the stronger resume gets the nod for the ACC Championship Game. Last season, that would have helped the Hurricanes and pushed Duke out.
It also would have changed Miami’s path to the College Football Playoff. Instead of needing to win the ACC title to sneak into the CFP, the Hurricanes would have had the better shot the other way around, with Duke winning the conference game.
This year’s setup appears to tilt things even more toward Miami. The Hurricanes are again viewed as the league’s favorites, just as they were in each of the last two seasons.
And on top of that, Miami is projected to run the table in a season where its schedule is considered weaker than it was a year ago.
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