The ACC New Tiebreaker Rule and How It Affects Miami and Its Championship Aspirations
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More things continue to change in college football year after year, and in the Atlantic Coast Conference, more changes are coming for teams who are trying to reach the ACC Championship game this season.
There is a new tie-breaker rule in the conference that favors the Miami Hurricanes, as they have been a game shy in the past two seasons of making the conference championship game and winning the one thing missing from their illustrious trophy case.
Now, with these new rules, the Canes have a better chance of making it thanks to more confusing rules that will only matter in the final few weeks of the season.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Breakdown of the New Rules
"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.
Simple Terms
In simple terms, if a team is 8-1, 7-1, or 7-2, the one with the best resume will make the ACC Championship game. The Hurricanes last year would have been in, and Duke would have been out.
The Canes would have had to win their first ACC Championship to sneak into the CFP instead of the latter, thanks to the Blue Devils winning.
Moreover, this favors them making the ACC Championship game this season, as they are the consensus favorites to win the league, similar to how they have been in back-to-back seasons.
Regardless, the Hurricanes are projected to have an undefeated season with a weaker schedule than last season.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.
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