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Friedlander: The ACC deserves 2 Playoff bids. The only question is which 2 teams?
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For a few glorious days this week, the ACC allowed its mind to wander and imagine a world in which it could realistically end up with 3 teams in the College Football Playoff.
The same number as the SEC.
But you know what happens when something looks too good to be true.
It usually is.
Especially when you’re counting on a Miami football team to take care of its part of the equation.
In fairness, the ACC’s dream for 3 Playoff teams probably ended earlier in the day on Saturday when Clemson couldn’t contain South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers and squandered a 4th-quarter lead in a 17-14 setback to the rival Gamecocks.
But that doesn’t absolve the Hurricanes for their almost inevitable stumble in Syracuse.
By letting an early 3-touchdown lead fritter away into a 41-38 loss to the Orange, Mario Cristobal’s 6th-ranked team not only cost itself a trip to next week’s ACC Championship Game. It also put the conference’s chances of getting at least 2 entries into the 12-team bracket into the hands of the selection committee.
And we all know how iffy that can be.
While there’s always the possibility of some 11th-hour shenanigans similar to those that kept Florida State out of last year’s 4-team field, the ACC has done enough this season to deserve at least 2 bids into this season’s expanded tournament.
The only question is which 2.
Either SMU or Clemson will provide half the answer next Saturday when they meet to decide the conference championship and the ACC’s automatic Playoff bid at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
It’s all but a certainty that with 3 losses, winning the title will be the 12th-ranked Tigers’ only pathway into the Playoff.
But then what?
A lot will depend on how much weight the committee puts on title game losses.
To this point, chairman Warde Manuel has been noncommittal when asked about the process, saying only that he and his colleagues “have high regard for teams that make the championship.
“We’re going to watch those games and make sure, as we watch them, that we look at everything that’s going on in those games and everything they’ve done throughout the season,” the Michigan athletic director said on last week’s rankings reveal show.
That means style points are likely to matter.
It also puts a premium on how the teams are slotted in this week’s final regular season poll.
Unlike Miami, SMU left a positive impression on the committee with its 38-6 rout of Cal on Saturday.
At 11-1 and unbeaten in the ACC in their debut season in the conference, the Mustangs will move up from their current No. 9 ranking and be the league’s highest-rated team heading into championship weekend.
A reasonable expectation considering No. 2 Ohio State’s upset loss to Michigan and No. 7 Georgia’s 8-overtime struggle to beat Georgia Tech is that they’re bumped up into Miami’s former spot at No. 6.
That in itself should be enough to ensure a spot in the Playoff no matter what happens in Charlotte. Despite an ACC schedule that avoided all of the ACC’s top teams and a nonconference loss to BYU that doesn’t look as good now as it did 3 weeks ago, Rhett Lashlee’s team has done everything that’s been asked of it.
SMU is undefeated since Kevin Jennings was installed as its starting quarterback. It’s No. 2 in the league in scoring offense and scoring defense. And it’s done so in its first season of transition from the Group of 5 to a power conference program.
But that still might not be good enough depending on how far Miami falls after Saturday’s loss.
If the Hurricanes manage to stay in the top 12 it could give the Playoff Committee an excuse to catapult Miami back ahead of the Mustangs if both teams finish with 2 losses. The Committee has, after all, shown a preference for brand-name programs. And Cam Ward would undoubtedly be a better ratings draw for ESPN.
Not that TV ratings factor into the decision (wink, wink).
Even without the name recognition factor, a legitimate case can be made for the Hurricanes. It’s not as if their losses are to Bishop Sycamore or Northern Illinois.
Syracuse is 9-3, has the nation’s No. 1 passing offense and could very well end up ranked after taking down the Hurricanes. Then there’s Georgia Tech, a team that had Georgia on the ropes Friday night before Greg Sankey called in all his chips and got the Bulldogs the help they needed to pull through.
It goes without saying that it’s in SMU’s best interest to eliminate the guesswork by adding an ACC championship to the American Athletic Conference crown they won a year ago.
That could also turn out to be Miami’s best shot at joining the Mustangs in the bracket and ensuring that the ACC not only gets the multiple bids it has earned, but that it hangs onto an opening-round bye its champion deserves.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
