Miami’s Mario Cristobal will be leading his alma mater into the biggest game of his coaching career on Thursday, but the fourth-year head coach took some time to give props to his team’s conference ahead of the clash with Ole Miss.
At the Fiesta Bowl’s media day, Cristobal emphasized how competitive the ACC was this season and even went on to say that he believes a lot of programs within the league would have found success in the College Football Playoff.
“I don’t think people realize how good the teams in the ACC are. I hope they’re realizing that more and more as we advance,” Cristobal said. “Because the teams in our conference…they’d do great in the CFP.”
Cristobal’s comments could be considered controversial to some, as the ACC did suffer through a lengthy stretch in which it didn’t look like it would land a team in the CFP. 11 of the league’s 17 teams qualified for the postseason, but only two of them reached double-digit wins, and only 3 were ranked in the latest playoff rankings.
Still, when pairing the many upsets the ACC featured alongside rising programs such as SMU, Georgia Tech, Duke, Wake Forest and California, it’s easy to see why Cristobal believes the conference is more than the stereotypes suggest. And on top of that, teams like Virginia Tech, Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina figure to bounce back from down years.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
