Home ‘Hoo do we root for next week? The Road to Charlotte for UVA Football
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‘Hoo do we root for next week? The Road to Charlotte for UVA Football

Chris Graham
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Photo: © Jamie Lamor Thompson/Shutterstock

Virginia, with its 34-17 win at Duke on Saturday, is 6-1 in the ACC, with a week off before the regular-season finale, at home, with Virginia Tech on Nov. 29.

Slight bit of bad news on that one: Virginia Tech, with its 34-14 loss at FSU Saturday night, is now 3-7, which means, out of bowl contention.

Another way to look at that: the Hokies’ bowl game is the inaugural Scott Stadium Bowl*.

*In need of a title sponsor.


ICYMI


Four teams have one loss in ACC play after Week 12: Georgia Tech (9-1, 6-1 ACC), Virginia (9-2, 6-1 ACC), Pitt (7-3, 5-1 ACC), SMU (7-3, 5-1 ACC).

So, who has the inside track to the ACC Championship Game?

For starters, either Georgia Tech or Pitt will get a second loss next weekend: those two play in Atlanta on Nov. 22.

Also next weekend, SMU hosts Louisville (7-3, 4-3 ACC), which dropped out of the title-game race with its 20-19 loss to Clemson (5-5, 4-4 ACC) on Friday night.

Louisville, thus, reduced to being a spoiler now, as far as Charlotte is concerned; they’d still, obviously, love to get a win in Dallas, ahead of their season finale with Kentucky, to get the warmest-weather bowl possible.

Go Cards, basically, to get rid of SMU – which finishes at Cal (6-4, 3-3 ACC) on Nov. 29.

Georgia Tech is done in the ACC next weekend, so maybe we root for Pitt in that one – knowing that Pitt finishes with Miami (8-2, 4-2 ACC), which would love to be able to backdoor its way into Charlotte.

But then, I’m just now hearing if Pitt, SMU and Duke (5-5, 4-2 ACC) all lose, we’re in, regardless of what would happen in Charlottesville on Nov. 29.

Duke is at North Carolina (4-6, 2-4 ACC) next weekend.

Rooting for Bill Belichick?

So, that settles it – we’re rooting for Georgia Tech, Louisville and Belichick.

Let’s get together this time next week to reassess.

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].