ACC Championship picture unfolding… at The Sports Corner

ACC Championship picture unfolding…

November 15th, 2008 by Thomas M

Well, not really, it’s still about as complicated as the Base-ketball post-season.

With Maryland beating North Carolina, they now control their own destiny in the Atlantic division. In the Coastal division, Miami controls their fate after beating Virginia Tech on Thursday night. The Terps have Florida State and Boston College left on the schedule, Miami has Georgia Tech and NC State. If Georgia Tech beats Miami, they’ll go to the ACC championship game.

If Maryland loses once while FSU and Wake Forest win out, then the three-team tie-breaker rules come into affect, which I really don’t have time to explain, so here they are:

Two-Team Tie

3. Head-to-head competition versus the team within the division with the best overall record.(divisional) Conference record and proceeding though the division. Multiple ties within the division broken from first to last.

4. Overall record versus all common non-divisional opponents.

5. Combined record vs. all non-divisional teams.

6. Record versus common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish (divisional and non-divisional) and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.

7. The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the end of regular season games shall be the divisional representative in the ACC Championship Game.

8. The representative shall be chosen by a draw.

Three (or More) Team Tie
(Once tie has been reduced to two teams, the two-team tiebreaker format is used)

3. Head-to-head competition vs. the team within the division with the best overall (divisional or conference) record, and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken first to last.

4. Overall record for non-divisional teams.

5. Combined record versus all common non-divisional teams.

6. Record versus common non-divisional with the best overall Conference (divisional) and non-divisional record and proceeding through the other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within the division.

7. The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the conclusion of regular season games shall be the divisional representative in the ACC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the ACC Championship Game.

8. The representative shall be chosen by a draw.

At first blush, it looks like every team in the Atlantic division is still alive. In conference play, Maryland is 4-2, FSU and Wake Forest are 4-3, Boston College is 3-3, Clemson is 3-4 and NC State is 2-4. So it would seem that with the right amount of breaks, NC State can still represent this haphazard division in the ACC championship. Meaning at 7-6, the Wolfpack could be in the Orange Bowl. But unfortunately for NC State and Clemson fans, somebody has to finish 5-3 in that division, knocking them out of the picture.

In the Coastal division on the other hand, only Duke (1-5) has been eliminated from contention. Keep in mind these teams play a total of eight conference games. So they have just one or two games left. Miami is 4-2, Georgia Tech is 4-3, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Virginia are all 3-3. Virginia also has the chance to be a 7-6 Orange bowl team.

The way Miami is playing right now, they look primed to take this division. Then again, I can’t remember the last time I knew what was going to happen in the ACC. If the Canes win out, it’s their first 10-win regular-season since 2003.