James Madison’s Debut in College Football Playoff Rankings Is Bad News for the ACC

The Dukes are poised to slingshot into the 12-team field.

Bob Chesney and James Madison could start packing their bags as soon as Saturday. | Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

You, the reader of this article, are almost certainly having a better night than the people who run the Atlantic Coast Conference.

That’s because the league’s worst nightmare came true in Tuesday's College Football Playoff rankings: James Madison cracked the rankings at No. 25.

Why is this such bad news for the ACC? Let’s look at a key component of the 12-team playoff’s format—the first paragraph on the format section of the CFP’s website, in fact.

The 12 participating teams will be the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee, plus the next seven highest-ranked schools.

Notice, as many have in recent years, that that provision does not say “the champions of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, plus the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion.” The five highest-ranked conference champions—period—will enter the 12-team field on Sunday.

Which introduces the question of what happens if Duke wins the ACC.

The Blue Devils have lost five games this year, but it’s not unrealistic to think they could upset Virginia Saturday. If they do, and the Dukes hold serve in the Sun Belt championship against Troy, the five highest ranked conference champions will in all likelihood be the Indiana-Ohio State winner, the Georgia-Alabama winner, the BYU-Texas Tech winner, the North Texas-Tulane winner, and James Madison.

Had the 12-team format been around in the BCS era, the ACC—an up-and-down gridiron league—may have missed several CFPs. However, the league in all likelihood couldn’t imagine that a miss in this era of bloated conferences would come so soon.

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