Despite moving to #12 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings, Miami is still very much on the outside looking in for an at-large bid to the playoff.
The Hurricanes’ most realistic path to the playoffs is a win in the ACC Championship Game.
The problem is, Miami has a slim-to-none chance of getting to Charlotte.
For the ACC, that’s not good news, as only one team from the league is likely to advance to postseason play.
The positive for the ACC is that a nightmare scenario where the league is shut out of the CFP is not going to happen.
Back to Miami: The Hurricanes need a lot of things to break the right way on Saturday to make the conference title game.
Despite being the highest-ranked team in the CFP rankings, the Hurricanes, 5-2 in ACC action, face a steep hill to climb.
Pitt, SMU, and Virginia are tied for first in the conference standings at 6-1.
Miami can control its fate with Pitt as the two teams square off Saturday afternoon.
Miami’s main challenge is that Virginia and SMU are both favorites to win their season finales.
Virginia is nearly a double-digit favorite at home against Virginia Tech. Meanwhile, SMU travels to Northern California to face Cal, which fired its head coach after an embarrassing loss to Stanford on Saturday.
On paper, SMU and Virginia have the highest odds of playing in Charlotte; any ACC Championship Game that doesn’t involve Miami spells doom for the Hurricanes.
Is Virginia now the ACC darling?
So, for the ACC, the biggest concern is how to fill Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday evening, Dec. 6.
Now that the marquee matchup the league envisioned earlier in the season, an FSU-Miami showdown, turned out to be fool’s gold, Plan B goes into effect.
And believe it or not, Plan B is all about Virginia being one of the two teams in the title game.
Yep, Virginia.
Despite all their flaws, the officials at the ACC headquarters realize that having UVA in Charlotte will be beneficial.
Virginia fans often struggle to find their way to Charlottesville and Scott Stadium, but they appear to enjoy visiting the Queen City.
Virginia had a strong turnout for its 2019 drubbing by Clemson in the 2019 ACC Championship Game.
In 2018, UVA fans made up a significant portion of the announced attendance of 48,263 against South Carolina in the Belk Bowl, which was less than a 100-mile trip from Columbia, South Carolina.
ACC Power Rankings
- Virginia
- SMU
- Miami
- Pitt
- Wake Forest
- Duke
- Georgia Tech
- Clemson
- NC state
- Louisville
- Florida State
- Stanford
- Virginia Tech
- North Carolina
- Cal
- Syracuse
- Boston College
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