It all comes down to this.
After a win against Virginia Tech, but more importantly, a Pitt win over Georgia Tech, the Miami Hurricanes have a path to make the ACC Championship Game. Those two results, Miami winning
and Georgia Tech losing, were essential to making this come true. A Georgia Tech win would have eliminated Miami from ACCCG contention, so thanks, Pitt!
Let’s not dawdle and get into things.
ACC Standings
The present ACC standings are as follows:
- SMU, Pitt, and Virginia at 6-1 in the league
- Georgia Tech at 6-2 in the league
- Miami and Duke at 5-2 in the league
- The only team whose ACC season is over of this top group is Georgia Tech. They play Georgia to end the regular season and cannot improve their conference record.
- Then the rest, who really don’t figure into this conversation from a current-standings standpoint
To get to the ACC Championship game, Miami is looking for a 6-2 conference record for the year, and tiebreakers over others with the same record not named Duke. They will need plenty of help from teams in front of them losing to get in a position to win tiebreakers at 6-2, but it’s possible.
What Miami needs
Miami (5-2 ACC)
A win vs Pitt
AND
A loss by Duke
AND EITHER
a loss by SMU (to Cal) OR Virginia (to Virginia Tech). Doesn’t matter which, just need one of them to lose.
Duke (5-2 ACC)
We need Duke to lose to Wake Forest. This is REQUIRED, as Duke would hold the tiebreaker over Miami at 6-2.
SMU (6-1 ACC)
Virginia (6-1 ACC)
I put these two together. Miami needs EITHER SMU or Virginia to lose. It really doesn’t matter which one, but it has to be at least one of them. If they both win, they face each other in the ACCCG by virtue of their matching 7-1 conference records.
That’s it. I know there’s stuff with opponent records, which Jordan McPherson of The Miami Herald dove into.
But, at the end of the day, with the combination of results up top — A Miami win, a Duke loss, and EITHER an SMU or Virginia Loss, the Canes will be heading to Charlotte.
So there you have it. Miami needs a win next week, and 2 other teams to lose: Duke AND EITHER SMU or Virginia. With that combination of results, the Canes head to the ACC Championship Game.
Time to go win and hope for more help, just like this week.
