ACC more than survived, it thrived. Miami in the College Football Playoff final is proof

MIAMI (AP) — The Power 4 conference that didn’t get its champion into the College Football Playoff has a team that tied for second playing in the CFP’s national title game.

So much for the demise of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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The league that looked most vulnerable a few short years ago when the latest round of realignment shook up college sports is doing just fine.

The best proof comes out of Miami, a second-place finisher in the ACC that plays Indiana in the title game Monday. It’s a turn of events that, at least for now, has left in the rearview mirror the playoff rejection of ACC champion Duke.

“It’s been about creativity and innovation on the business side of sports, as well as in the area that has connections with competition,” commissioner Jim Phillips said in explaining what has worked over the past few tumultuous years.

To reset, Duke won a convoluted tiebreaker to emerge from a five-way tie for second and make the ACC title game, then beat Virginia there. But because the Blue Devils had five losses and were unranked, they got passed over by 24th-ranked Sun Belt champion James Madison for the fifth and final automatic-qualifying spot in the 12-team bracket.

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It was something of a black eye for a conference that was, for decades, known for basketball, but through expansion moves of its own along with the steady success of either Florida State or Clemson, has cultivated a more-than-respectable resume as a football conference.

In this case, it was Miami — once a big, brash name in college football that hadn’t been quite that since it joined the league in 2004 — that came to the rescue.

The furor over the Duke snub was erased when the playoff selection committee gave the Hurricanes the last at-large spot over Notre Dame despite ranking them lower than the Fighting Irish all season.

Miami making the final might have validated that decision.

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“I believe the ACC is like 9-4 in postseason play this year, and I think a lot of the reasons we have progressed is (thanks to) some of the teams that we have faced throughout the course of the season in our conference,”…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/acc-more-survived-thrived-miami-212842911.html

Author : EDDIE PELLS

Publish date : 2026-01-16 21:28:00

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