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andrea adelson
miami Athletic director Dan Radakovich told ESPN on Monday that the ACC should rethink its tiebreaker system to ensure the conference “can play its best game” in the championship game.
No. 12 Miami (10-2) finished in a five-way tie for second place in the ACC at 6-2, but ruler (7-5) advanced to the championship game against No. 16 Virginia (10–2) based on fifth tiebreaker: conference opponent winning percentage.
“We have to get a little better at it,” Radakovich said, “and I can’t tell you right now what the answer is, but I think we have to look at some different things that might be able to streamline it and make sure the league plays its best.”
ACC coaches and athletic directors voted for tiebreakers, which were added after the divisions were eliminated in 2023. Other Power 4 conferences follow largely similar tiebreaker procedures. The U.S. uses the last available CFP ranking in case of tied teams with no head-to-head result. The Mountain West used a metrics-based tiebreaker to break four-way ties for its championship game.
Radakovich said the ACC tiebreakers were largely based on how they were done when the league had divisions.
“It’s very complicated, and we need to consider other options that can make it more simple, but still take into account the idea of multiple teams being tied,” Radakovich said. “The old system probably didn’t consider having four or five teams tying for second place.”
Miami has yet to fight for an at-large berth in the College Football Playoff. The Hurricanes are ranked 12th in the next CFP rankings to be released on Tuesday.
The biggest point of contention for those in Miami centers on Notre Dame, a team the Hurricanes defeated head-to-head. Although the teams have the same record, the Irish are ranked four places higher.
“At the end of the day, when things are being compared, you always want a head-to-head competition so you can really make it clear to everybody, so there’s no speculation,” Miami coach Cristobal told ESPN in a phone interview. “Well, college football world, we had that. I believe 9.2 million people watched it.”
beat miami Notre Dame 27-24 in Week 1, star running back jeremiah love By a season-low 33 yards. This was his only game this season in which he did not score a touchdown. Both teams also played four common ACC opponents, all of them comparable blowouts.
Of the teams ranked in the top 15, Miami is the only team that is no further than the team that defeated them in head-to-head. Georgia is ahead of ole miss, texas tech is ahead of BYU, oklahoma is ahead of alabamaAnd the Crimson Tide are ahead Vanderbilt,
Selection committee chairman Hunter Yurachek said last week that Miami and Notre Dame were compared in the same pool, and that the committee still believes Notre Dame is “a complete team” and “deserve to be ranked where they are.”
miami lost louisville at the end of October and smu in November, but Cristobal reported that the Hurricanes had six starters against the Mustangs. Since that loss on Nov. 1, Miami has recorded four double-digit wins – including a 38-7 win over Pitt last weekend.
“Nobody is playing better football than Miami right now,” Cristobal said. “We’re playing better football than we were when we were No. 2 in the country.
“The whole world wants to see Miami there, and they want to see it for the right reasons. Malachi Tony And Achim Messidor And ruben bain And carson beck “We have some of the most exciting players in the country, and I think people also realize that Miami has the ability to compete with or beat anyone in the country.”
