Friedlander: Multiple Playoff bids are suddenly there for the taking, ACC. Now don’t screw it up
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There you are, ACC.
The College Football Playoff Committee has put your dream scenario within your grasp.
Now don’t screw it up.
By moving SMU up to No. 9 and Clemson to No. 12 in this week’s rankings, the conference has suddenly gone from a 1-bid league to having the possibility of 3 teams in the expanded 12-team bracket.
The same number as the mighty SEC.
All it has to do is hope the Mustangs and Tigers, along with No. 6 Miami, can all avoid the chaos that hit everyone else around the country last week and take care of business in their regular-season finales on Saturday.
It’s not exactly a win and you’re in proposition. As Florida State’s undefeated 2023 ACC champions can attest, there are no guarantees where the Playoff selection process is concerned.
But with victories by Miami against Syracuse and SMU against Cal, the conference will put itself into a highly advantageous position. Its case for getting multiple bids can become even stronger if the Tigers, currently the first team out of the field, can also take down nonconference arch-rival South Carolina.
That would assure the ACC of having 3 teams with 2 or fewer losses once all is said and done. Thus providing the league with a buffer against any potential shenanigans on the part of the Committee in the event it decides to go back on chairman Warde Manuel’s repeated assertions that teams shouldn’t be penalized for losing a conference championship game.
https://twitter.com/CFBPlayoff/status/1861596428117643283
From the sound of things Tuesday night, Manuel is already starting to hedge his bets.
“I won’t project what the Committee will do. What I’ll say is that we have high regard for teams that make the championship,” he said when asked specifically about SMU by host Rece Davis on ESPN’s rankings reveal show. “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 as we look at where to rank them in the final week.”
In other words, style points will matter. So if you’re going to lose, make sure you keep the score respectable or the Committee will use it as the excuse it’s looking for to sneak Alabama or another 3-loss SEC team into the final at-large spot.
But at least the ACC now has 2 teams on the right side of the bubble.
For that, it can thank the carnage that claimed 7 of the top 19 teams in last week’s Playoff rankings, including then-No. 5 Indiana, No. 7 Alabama and No. 9 Ole Miss.
It’s not as if members of the Committee suddenly had an epiphany and decided to give the Mustangs the credit they deserve. Or finally took the time to watch them dismantle Virginia last Saturday, although they do deserve some credit for leapfrogging Rhett Lashlee’s team ahead of fellow 10-1 teams Indiana and Boise State.
They simply had no other choice.
The same holds true for Clemson’s ascension to No. 12, an improvement of 5 spots from a week ago, even though its 51-14 victory came in what amounted to a glorified scrimmage against The Citadel.
The Tigers haven’t played their way back into the Playoff picture as much as others have played their way out of contention. Their overall resume is almost as suspect as the one George O’Leary tried to pass off on Notre Dame back in the day.
Their 2 losses to date are to the 2 best teams they’ve played, No. 7 Georgia and ACC rival Louisville. Their best win to date, at least as far as records are concerned, came against a Pittsburgh team that has lost 4 straight since starting 7-0.
And they needed a miracle 50-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cade Klubnik in the final 76 seconds to avoid losing that one, too.
Clemson’s credentials will be strengthened considerably if it can beat No. 15 South Carolina on Saturday. Until then, its most redeeming qualities are its brand name – a factor that continues to weigh heavily on the Committee’s decisions – and that its 9-2 record is less unsightly than that of the 3-loss SEC teams directly below it in the current poll.
Their 2 losses are to the 2 best teams they’ve played, No. 7 Georgia and ACC rival Louisville. Their best win to date came against a Pittsburgh team that has lost 4 straight since starting 7-0. And they needed a miracle 50-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cade Klubnik in the final 76 seconds to avoid losing that one, too.
Clemson will have a chance to strengthen its credentials by beating No. 15 South Carolina on Saturday. Until then, its most redeeming quality is that at 9-2, its record is just a little less unsightly than the 3-loss SEC teams slotted directly below them in the current rankings.
Are the Tigers a Playoff team?
Who’s to say?
Hypotheticals, as we learned last week and throughout this crazy season, are meaningless once the teams take the field and actually play the games.
So even though all 3 of the ACC’s ranked teams are favored this week and the conference is suddenly in a position to get more than just the 1 Playoff bid most projected, it’s too soon to start crowing.
There’s still plenty of opportunity left to screw this up.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
