ACC fumbled the Playoff, and Miami nearly paid the price
On selection Sunday, Miami fans watched another committee show turn into a lecture on “résumés” and “data points.” When the bracket rolled across the screen, Duke already held the ACC’s potential automatic bid, James Madison celebrated a golden ticket and the final debate narrowed to Miami versus Notre Dame. That outcome did not happen by some sort of fluke. The ACC helped create it.
Duke’s trip to Charlotte came from a tiebreaker maze that rewarded paperwork over power. The league office leaned on a bylaw flowchart instead of common football sense. Everyone knew Miami had a more deserving claim to a spot in the ACC Championship Game, but Duke landed the title game slot not because it scared anyone nationally, but because the ACC clung to a rigid formula that protected “fairness” over its own brand.
Once Duke reached the ACC Championship, a solid but limited Blue Devils roster walked into a neutral-site game and took down ranked Virginia. It gave the network a nice underdog story, but never moved the national meter. That showing opened the door for another Group of 5 team to get an automatic bid in James Madison. With the ACC’s résumé watered down by its own title matchup, James Madison walked through a gap the league carved for it.
Then the debate landed squarely on Miami versus Notre Dame. On one side, a Canes team that navigated an ACC grind, carried a top-tier defense and played elimination games for a month. On the other side, an independent brand with a friendlier schedule and the usual halo around its helmet. Instead of Miami making the ACC Title game — and then a slam-dunk ACC champion locking down a spot in the Playoff — the conference left its best asset in the at-large pool and trusted the committee.
The ACC cannot control every twist of the season, but it can control who represents the league in its Conference Championship Game. A modern conference must design tiebreakers and schedules that push its strongest contenders onto the biggest stage. Protect top brands, reward tougher paths, avoid scenarios where a plucky middle-tier team blocks a legitimate Playoff threat. Parity sells in September, but power matters in December.
Miami did enough for a clear shot at the field, yet the league’s structure shoved the Canes into a coin-flip against Notre Dame and gifted James Madison a path that never should have existed. The ACC loves to talk about chasing the SEC and Big Ten; that chase starts with one simple admission: the conference undercut its own Playoff hand, and Miami almost took the hit.
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