ACC commissioner Jim Philips might have to double up the number of media appearances and make sure every factoid is readily available after Tuesday’s reveal of the first College Football Playoff selection committee Top 25 ranking.
Because make no bones about it, the ACC is in deep trouble to repeat last season’s feat and send multiple teams to the playoff. The conference hasn’t lost the war by any means, but it is losing the initial battle with newfound peer the Big 12 when it comes to the committee’s opinion.
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The highest-ranked ACC team in the initial rankings was No. 14 Virginia, which has a lone nonconference loss to … an ACC team in NC State.
That’s the same Wolfpack that just whipped, according to committee chair and Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades, previously undefeated Georgia Tech in the trenches to drop the Yellow Jackets to No. 17 behind two-loss Vanderbilt. No. 15 Louisville slots in behind No. 10 Notre Dame, the Red River duo of No. 11 Texas and No. 12 Oklahoma and two-loss Big 12 team Utah at No. 13.
“I think you can say this about the ACC, [there’s] not, at least at this point, a lot of nonconference signature wins,” Rhoades said. “We looked at Georgia Tech at North Carolina State, and it just felt like North Carolina State dominated Georgia Tech on both sides of the ball. A bad night for Georgia Tech. But again, a lot of ball still to be played.”
That’s a painful reality for the league office in Charlotte, but a reality they hope the teams in the hunt can overcome over the next few weeks.
What’s worse for the conference is the plight of Miami, the lone program that could rightfully claim to have done its job before ACC play began. The Hurricanes beat Notre Dame at home in that classic Labor Day game, blew out American (and Group of 5) contender South Florida, plus won the state championship over Florida and Florida State.
For as strong as the Canes looked early on though, they have faltered just when trying to leave a lasting impression for committee members. They turned the ball over multiple times to lose a winnable home game against Louisville in mid-October and then coughed up an overtime game against SMU last weekend.
It’s telling that Mario Cristobal’s team is now eight spots behind the Notre Dame team they beat and apparently well behind in the pecking order of Virginia, Louisville and Georgia Tech. Miami doesn’t have a favorable path to even make it to the ACC championship game given some of the tiebreakers involved. Based on Tuesday’s results, it appears an at-large bid is a distant dream.
“We all believe Miami has got a talented team when you look at their roster,” Rhoades said. “Certainly think they’re really good defensively. I think if they can maybe correct some of the woes that they’ve had just in terms of turnovers, and certainly on the offensive side of the ball, they can certainly have an opportunity to win games.
“I think for Miami, I’m just going to say it: For Miami, it’s about consistency and their lack of consistency. We just need to see more consistency out of Miami headed down the stretch.”
Ah, so only the thing that Miami has not seemed to cobble together at any point in the last, say, 24 years? Not great for Phillips or anybody hoping to cash an extra CFP check next month.
Maybe as concerning is the lack of respect being shown to the ACC in general. Pitt did sneak in at No. 24 (and it would help a ton if the Panthers could knock off Notre Dame at home in a few weeks), but Louisville has a good case to be far higher than it is. The Cardinals have more ranked wins (two) than No. 9 Oregon or the No. 10 Irish (one) and suffered their only blemish to Virginia, the No. 14 team, in overtime.
Alas, Jeff Brohm’s team would need to climb at least four spots to even have a shot at making the field and needs to leapfrog three two-loss teams to do so—including Utah, the Big 12’s third-best team.
“Texas Tech, again, great respect for them. Going into Utah, and again, we’ve got Utah ranked at 13, but going into Utah and winning at Utah, we thought, was a really, really quality, quality win,” Rhoades added. “Texas Tech, just a really, really good football team. Look, we tried to help ESPN out with their ratings by getting BYU and Texas Tech together with in Lubbock, so enjoy that.”
They most assuredly will not be in the league who now considers that trio of teams atop their latest enemy’s list.
The committee has sent the message clearly and loudly to both coasts of the ACC footprint that there’s a ton of work left to do from now until Selection Sunday if the league wants to do anything more than send its champion to the bracket.
