The Most Underrated Thing Was …
The ACC is still alive in the College Football Playoff chase.
It was assumed that the ACC was left for dead in the run to the College Football Playoff, and for realistic intents and purposes, it’s still in trouble.
But it’s still alive.
Clemson, North Carolina, and Miami were all supposed to be good at college football this year, and they’re not. That made it easy to dismiss a conference that’s been easy to dismiss over the years when it’s been Clemson and a bunch of other teams. But there’s a chance the college football world might really have to pay attention to the league over the finishing kick.
Wake Forest hung 70 on the board in the wild win over Army to get to 7-0. Yeah, hell and at North Carolina, NC State, at Clemson, at Boston College are coming to breakfast after the free space home date against Duke, but the Demon Deacons will end up going into November unbeaten in a Power Five conference.
Next week right about now in Grapevine, Texas, one of the College Football Playoff committee members will do a deep dive on just how bad Pitt’s 44-41 loss to a mediocre Western Michigan really is.
It’s not like there’s an amazing win on the 6-1 Panther slate so far, but beating Tennessee and Virginia Tech on the road, and taking care of Clemson at home, are good enough. And unlike Wake Forest, Pitt’s chances of getting to the ACC Championship with an honest shot at the CFP are more reasonable.
At Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, at Syracuse, and then it’ll probably get Wake Forest or NC State in the ACC Championship – if all goes well.
In a dream world for the conference, it’s 12-0 Wake Forest against 11-1 Pitt for the championship, but even then it’s going to take some help to get into the playoff.
Alabama can’t beat Georgia in the SEC Championship. Oregon might have to lose, Oklahoma might have to lose twice, and there are too many teams still alive in the Big Ten to start.
And, of course, there’s the Cincinnati problem – an unbeaten Wake Forest gets in over an unbeaten American Athletic Conference team – but that’s for another time if the ACC champion get do its part and be viable in the discussion.
For now, Clemson is out. North Carolina is out. Miami and Florida State and Virginia and Virginia Tech are all out – at least for the College Football Playoff – and yet the ACC still matters in the last week of October.
Yay. That’s a good thing.
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– AAC expansion: One Really Big Thing
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– Curveballs coming What It All Means, Week 8