The college football season is past the halfway point and the ACC is in the mix to do something it has done only once during the College Football Playoff era.
The ACC has been represented in the CFP championship game five times, with Clemson winning the title to cap the 2016 and 2018 seasons. But only once — in 2024 — has the conference been represented in the same year by multiple teams in the tournament field.
What is shaping up to be a wild second
half the 2026 season could change that in what will be the third year of the CFP's 12-team field.
Associated Press Top 25 No. 1 Miami (7-0) — which lost to Indiana in last year's CFP championship game — is in the driver's seat to be an ACC representative this season.
The five highest-ranked conference champions — from the Power Four and one from the Group of Six — all qualify for the CFP field. The other seven spots will be filled by the next-highest-ranked teams. One of those at-large teams will be Notre Dame if the Fighting Irish with their ACC-heavy schedule are among the top 12 in the CFP’s final rankings.
Miami is currently 5-0 in conference play. No 14 Wake Forest enters this week 6-1 (4-1 ACC) with its lone blemish being a 33-20 loss to Miami back on Sept. 18. No. 19 SMU has an identical record to the Demon Deacons, with the Mustangs' only setback being a 41-31 loss to then-No. 23 Louisville back on Sept. 19.
It's brought a lot of attention to the potential — and talent — on the Wake Forest and SMU rosters. So much so that Wake Forest second-year coach Jake Dickert acknowledged that his team might be the “most scouted roster in the country.”
It also presents an added variable to their playoff chase, which is why he addressed those potential distractions with his team when they returned from last week's bye.
“It’s all about what you prioritize,” Dickert said this week. “An opportunity like the one this team has going forward doesn’t come around every day. ... Our focus needs to be on that."
A lot could be decided as early as Nov. 14 when the Mustangs host the Demon Deacons in Dallas. SMU is 2-0 all-time at home against Wake Forest. But the teams haven't met in Texas since 1972.
It's shaping up to be a tight one.
Wake Forest's defense entered the week allowing only 19.4 points per game, the third-fewest in the ACC. SMU ranks third in the conference, averaging 36.4 points and 470.3 yards per game.
They also feature two of the best quarterbacks in the league in Wake Forest's Gio Lopez (17 touchdown passes, one interception) and SMU's Kevin Jennings (19 TD passes, five interceptions)
While winning the ACC championship game is the guaranteed way to get into the playoff field, the 2024 season proved that a two-loss ACC team could still make it in.
SMU finished 11-2 during that season and was an at-large selection in the CFP field after losing to Clemson (10-3) in the conference title game.
Wake Forest also is in an advantageous position if you use the AP poll as guide. Based on the AP rankings, the Demon Deacons are currently the third team that would be left out of the CFP top 12. That leaves plenty of time and opportunity for Wake Forest to move into playoff position if they keep winning.
While Notre Dame isn't an ACC team, following this Saturday's Halloween matchup with Navy, the Fighting Irish will finish their schedule against Miami, Boston College, SMU and Syracuse.
It means that Nov. 21 matchup with the Mustangs could go a long way in determining how many ACC teams will be in position to make the playoff field when the selection day poll is announced on Dec. 6.
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