ACC completely misses the point with new football tiebreaker procedure
· Yahoo Sports
The Atlantic Coast Conference is holding its football media day event this week. Commissioner Jim Phillips announced a new tiebreaker procedure in conjunction with the ACC Kickoff festivities. It's not a real solution. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports noted that Phillips said an "evaluation of more than 10,000 simulated season outcomes" was used to help formulate the tiebreaker procedure. Analytics definitely have their place in college football, but a tiebreaker procedure misses the point. Let's explain:
Miami, Duke and Virginia disaster from 2025
The whole reason the ACC embarrassed itself in 2025 was that Miami did not play Duke or Virginia. Having a head-to-head tiebreaker is great when two teams play head to head. That did not exist last season.
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Conference championship vs CFP
The ACC and other conferences need to separate the matter of the conference champion from the CFP representative. Duke obviously wasn't a playoff-caliber team. The Blue Devils won the ACC title but had no business being in the playoff. The ACC needs to allow its best team, not its champion, to represent the conference in the playoff. The ACC dodged a bullet when Miami got in over Notre Dame.
One obvious fix
The ACC, like other conferences, should create a simple rule saying no team with more than three losses can represent the league in the CFP.
The problem conferences aren't grasping
In this age of the super-size conference, with 16 or more schools, it's simple math: All teams aren't going to be able to play each other. When the Big 12 had 10 teams, everyone could and did play each other. We're not in that era anymore. Conferences have to account for the realities of 16-18 teams. This is exactly why and how Duke could avoid playing Miami, get roughed up in nonconference play, but rise to the top of the ACC standings and win the conference title. Conferences have to adjust to modern times, but they haven't.
The ultimate and best solution
The ACC and other conferences must introduce the "flex game" scheduling device. One game is left open in mid-to-late November. In mid-October, when it becomes clear which teams are contending for the conference title, the ACC should identify which contenders aren't scheduled to play each other, such as Miami and Duke. Those teams should play each other in that flexed slot. Teams will rotate home and away for flex games each season. This way, there will be relevant head-to-head tiebreakers which can then be plugged into a tiebreaker formula.
ACC failure
This "new" formula the ACC introduced on Wednesday is not a solution at all. The previous problems from 2025 and earlier years remain.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: ACC completely misses the point with new football tiebreaker procedure