Miami AD Challenges ACC’s Controversial Tiebreakers After Underdog Duke Snags Title Game Spot

Is it just me, or does it feel downright strange that Miami, ranked No. 12 in the College Football Playoff standings and the highest-ranked ACC team, won’t be battling for the ACC title this season? Instead, we see No. 18 Virginia topping the conference and Duke, with a 7-5 overall record, snagging a spot in the championship game thanks to a convoluted tiebreaker system that hinges on opponents’ conference win percentages. Dan Radakovich, Miami’s athletic director, isn’t mincing words—he’s calling out the ACC’s tie-breaking process as overly tangled and in dire need of revamping, especially with multiple teams tied and the league now free of divisions. It’s a tangled web that’s leaving Miami fans wondering if the system is fair, or if the conference’s structure is setting them up for disappointment. With Miami’s postseason hopes hanging by a thread and the broader college football landscape shifting — thanks to super-conferences and complicated playoff scenarios — it’s clear the ACC’s method of deciding its champion might need a serious overhaul before more teams get left out in the cold. LEARN MORE

Should Miami be playing No. 18 Virginia in the ACC title game instead of Duke?

As the Hurricanes could again be behind Notre Dame in Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings, athletic director Dan Radakovich believes the ACC needs to re-evaluate how it breaks ties.

The No. 12 Hurricanes are the highest-ranked ACC team in the CFP rankings but are not in the ACC title game. Virginia finished first in the conference with a 7-1 record and Duke — who is 7-5 overall, won the tiebreaker for second place. The Blue Devils finished at 6-2 in the conference with Miami, SMU, Pitt and Georgia Tech and got into the ACC title game thanks to its opponents having a better conference win percentage than the four other teams’ opposition.

Radakovich told ESPN Monday that the ACC has “got to get a little better at that” when it comes to tiebreakers.

“It’s too complicated, and we ned to look at other options that might make it more simple, but yet take into account the idea of multiple teams being tied,” Radakovich said. “The old system probably didn’t contemplate four or five teams being tied for a second-place spot.”

Miami’s exclusion from the ACC title game comes as the Hurricanes were two spots out of the final at-large berth in the playoff’s most recent rankings. No. 10 Alabama currently occupies the last at-large spot. If the Crimson Tide beat Georgia in the SEC title game on Saturday, Miami’s at-large chances are basically zero unless they jump Notre Dame — who the Hurricanes beat in Week 2 — on Tuesday night. Miami likely needs No. 5 Texas Tech to beat No. 11 BYU and an Alabama loss and a resulting Crimson Tide fall down the rankings to have a chance at the playoff.

The ACC ditched divisions after the 2023 season. The 17-team conference is the second-biggest in the country behind the 18-team Big Ten and with just eight conference games per team, head-to-head tiebreakers aren’t often applicable. Miami only played two of the teams it finished tied with and didn’t play Virginia. Duke only played Georgia Tech, but had the tiebreaker benefit of playing Virginia too.

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Duke’s inclusion in the ACC title game also presents a disaster scenario for the conference. If the Blue Devils beat Virginia and James Madison wins the Sun Belt Friday night and finishes with a 12-1 record, there’s a great chance the Dukes from Virginia could finish ahead of Duke from North Carolina in the final playoff rankings to become the fifth highest-ranked conference champion.

However, the ACC isn’t the only conference going deep into the tiebreaker section in 2025. The growth of super-conferences has led to conference title games being decided by third and fourth tiebreakers. The ACC is not alone in 2025. With Texas A&M’s loss to Texas in the final week of the season, there was a four-way tie for first place in the SEC among Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and the Aggies. A&M didn’t play any of the three other teams and lost out on a spot in the SEC championship game to the Tide and Bulldogs thanks to opponent win percentage.

The American Conference’s tiebreakers are different — but that’s also because the American wants to ensure that a team has the chance to make the playoff. Navy, North Texas and Tulane all finished tied for first in the conference and didn’t all play each other. But since Tulane was in last week’s CFP top 25, the Green Wave automatically won the three-team tiebreaker and earned the right to host Friday night’s title game. North Texas, with its win over Navy, then won the second tiebreaker.

The ACC (and other power conferences) don’t have a provision like that in their tiebreakers because a scenario where its conference champion missed out on the title game didn’t seem feasible.

But now it is.