ACC Announces New Tiebreaker System for Upcoming Football Season

The ACC found itself in quite the mess at the end of last season.

In a 17-team league where not all of the teams are going to play each other, that can lead to messy tiebreaker scenarios, and it seemed like the conference got caught flat-footed in December when there was a five-way tie for second place in the conference standings. SMU, Miami, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and Duke (who Georgia Tech beat in Durham) all had 6-2 records in conference play, and it was the Blue Devils, despite their 7-5 overall record, that got into the championship game, where they would beat Virginia.

With Duke winning the conference, that created a lot of discussion around the tiebreakers and creating a new system and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips announced today the new tiebreaker system in place.

New Tiebreakers

Brent Key Georgia Tec — Nov 28, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Brent Key on the field during the game against the Georgia Bulldogs during the first half at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

From the ACC:

"The updated tiebreaking procedure is built on three guiding principles:

Head-to-head results will always matter most. No team will be overly rewarded or penalized based on the number of conference games it played. When head-to-head competition cannot separate tied teams, the team with the strongest overall body of work will earn the opportunity to compete for the ACC Championship and the conference's automatic qualifier to the College Football Playoff."

The ACC also defined what would happen if three or more teams were tied:

"Three (or More) Team Tie
i. If all the Tied Teams are common opponents:
1. The Tied Team with the best record among the Tied Teams; if
necessary, the tiebreaker will restart, including the definition
of tied teams.
2. The Tied Team with the best ranking in the Team Success
Ranking provided by SportSource Analytics following the
conclusion of regular-season games; if necessary, the
tiebreaker will restart, including the definition of tied teams.
3. The participant shall be chosen by a draw as administered by
the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee; if necessary,
the tiebreaker will restart, including the definition of tied
teams.
ii. If all the Tied Teams are not common opponents:
1. The Tied Team which defeated each of the other Tied Teams is
placed into the Championship Game and removed from the
tie. The tied team which lost to each of the other Tied Teams is
removed from the tie; if necessary, the tiebreaker will restart,
including the definition of tied teams.
2. The Tied Team with the best ranking in the Team Success
Ranking provided by SportSource Analytics following the
conclusion of regular-season games is placed into the
Championship Game and removed from the tie; if necessary,
the tiebreaker will restart, including the definition of tied
teams.
3. The participant shall be chosen by a draw as administered by
the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee; if necessary,
the tiebreaker will restart, including the definition of tied
teams.

Phillips talked about the new policy today:

"A team's success ranking from sports source analytics, we've used them in the past, it will be the third element of the tiebreaking system. It's what the CFP uses. I think you have to go and give an opportunity to place your two best teams.

What's changed this year is that there's an AQ awarded for The Power Four conferences. So you have to do everything you can to position your championship game with those two best teams.

So we're going to stay -- head-to-head matters. That's always most important. Then we will look at the grouping and how teams fared in the regular conference season.

It will come down to body of work. Who you play, when you play, the games you win, conference and non-conference will matter. That's a major change in college sports and certainly for the ACC.

I'm looking forward to that. I had just say this. We talked a lot about it, used a lot of consultants, did 10,000 algorithms of different scenarios. It warranted that kind of time and commitment so that we can position ourselves to put those two best ACC teams forward.

Our schedule's not perfect coming up this year because we're going into that transition period where we're going to nine games, we have an uneven number of teams in the conference. 12 of our schools will play nine conference games, five of our schools will play eight. Everyone will play 10 Power Four games, so there's some balance there.

We'll continue to watch how this thing goes. But I feel incredibly strong that we have gotten to the right place with unanimity with our membership on what this new tiebreaking policy states."

Georgia Tech has been in the hunt to make the ACC Championship game in each of Brent Key's first three seasons, and they are hoping to break through in his fourth season and end the season in Charlotte with a chance to get to the College Football Playoff.

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