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
- UVA Football: Morris, Taylor, D key ‘Hoos to convincing 34-17 win at Duke
- UVA Football: ‘Hoos dominate Duke, win 34-17, to improve to 9-2, ahead of bye
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
