Can Miami still make the ACC championship game after their recent loss?
College Football Enquirer co-hosts Andy Staples, Steven Godfrey and Ross Dellenger discuss if the Miami Hurricanes still have a path to the ACC championship game after their defeat to Louisville. Who should be the new favorite to win the ACC? Hear the full conversation on the “College Football Enquirer” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I don't know if there's a group happier with Notre Dame's win than the Miami Hurricanes.
They lost to Louisville on Friday night, and the complicating factor with Miami losing is that Miami may get blocked from the ACC championship game.
That's the way things are going.
So, they don't have a lot of opportunities for quality wins the rest of the way.
But if you're Miami, and Notre Dame is 10-2, and Notre Dame is in position to make the playoff, and as long as you don't drop below 10-2, you should be ahead of Notre Dame because you beat them when they played.
So, Notre Dame kind of acts as a floor for Miami in the college football playoff race.
And if Notre Dame's in, Miami is still in.
So it is a logjam right now in the ACC.
That's what Andy was referring to.
Like, we probably should stop talking about Miami as a lock because Georgia Tech can't lose football games.
Miami does not have a pole position quite like we thought they did.
Oh, they don't have it at all because Louisville is still in the mix.
Virginia is still in the mix.
SMU is still undefeated in ACC play.
They're in a crowded one-loss group with the likes of Pitt and Duke, and Louisville and Cal.
Like, this is not as clear cut as we thought it was even just two weeks ago.
Yeah, Pitt's playing a lot better as well now, and, uh, so all of a sudden, yeah, it's really clustered up.
I mean, shoot, Duke is playing really well too.
I mean, I, I, you know, a couple of Duke losses to Illinois and Georgia Tech, uh, and I think they missed on like 4 or 5, well, they missed like those two games they missed on like 4 or 5 trips in the red zone, where they came up empty.
So they're playing really well between the 20s.
Um, if they were playing well enough in the red zone as the 20s, they may, they may be 6 and 1, but they're 3 and 1 in the ACC still.
You know, right now it is what it is.
So, yeah, it is, it is clustered up and it's just wild to me that, you know, at the top of the ACC is.
Georgia Tech and Virginia, and Virginia somehow keeps surviving too.
Right?
They got a safety to win a game, a game, not a game securing safety, to say, a game leading safety in a tie game.
Which you don't see very often.