ACC is staring at potential chaos tiebreaker scenario

While most of the nation had their eyes glued on the wild, thrilling comeback by Texas A&M over LSU late Saturday night, a game with serious College Football Playoff ripple-effects was taking place in anonymity 1,200 miles away in Durham, North Carolina.

In the closing seconds of a tie game buried on the ACC Network, Duke lined up for a 30-yard field goal with a chance to upset No. 22 SMU. 

If you froze time and gave conference commissioner Jim Phillips a dose of truth serum, I bet he’d admit he really hoped the Blue Devils nailed the kick. 

Instead, 6-foot-5 Mustangs defensive end Jahfari Harvey got his long paws on the ball to block the field goal and send the game into overtime. SMU — which had turned the ball over SIX TIMES and had zero takeaways — would score a touchdown and get a stop on Duke’s two-point attempt to escape and move 7-1, 4-0 in the ACC. 

How insane was this win by the Mustangs?

Previously, teams were 1-124 in the last 100 years with a minus-six turnover margin, per StatsPerform. 

Somewhere, Phillips was probably screaming.  

Why the ACC is staring at a potential chaos tiebreaker scenario 

Why would Jim Phillips be rooting for Duke?

Because it would’ve eliminated a potential mess on the ACC’s hands. 

As the calendar turns to November, the ACC has four teams undefeated in league play — the most among all Power Four leagues. 

Miami is No. 5 nationally and 8-0, while No. 11 Clemson’s lone loss is to No. 2 Georgia.  

The other two teams, No. 20 SMU and No. 16 Pitt, play Saturday night in Gerald J. Ford Stadium. 

Could three ACC teams make the CFP? The odds would be akin to hitting a long-shot parlay because of so much else that would have to happen right across the rest of the country. 

But a year removed from watching Florida State miss the CFP despite going 13-0, the ACC could have another team get left out of the dance with an unblemished record in conference play. 

That seems unfathomable — especially in an expanded 12-team field. 

But it’s not. 

If SMU (which is a 7-point favorite) beats Pitt on Saturday, then the ACC could be staring at a nightmarish tiebreaker scenario for who plays in its conference title game in Charlotte. 

All these bloated super conferences have created unbalanced schedules where so many teams in the league do not play one another. 

Pitt does play Clemson, so if the Panthers win on Saturday, there would be just two possible (at most) undefeated teams in league’s play by the end of the regular season. 

This would eliminate any chances of the ACC getting three teams into the CFP, but it also would avoid Phillips’ league from being the laughing stock of the football world once again. 

Because if Vegas is right, and SMU prevails at home, then there is the no-so-unrealistic possibility of Miami, Clemson and SMU all finishing the season 8-0 in ACC play because they don’t play one another. 

Clemson: Louisville, at Virginia Tech, at Pitt

Miami: Duke, at Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, at Syracuse

SMU: Pitt, Boston College, at Virginia, Cal

There’s not a murderous row slate for any of the three teams. 

Obviously, we’ve seen enough chaos this season where any of these teams could falter on a given Saturday, but what if they don’t?

The ACC would have to go to its fifth-tiebreaker, per conference rules, which is the combined winning percentages of each team’s conference opponents. 

This is where SMU could get screwed — with the ACC getting lampooned — when the playoff rankings are released on Selection Sunday. 

Pitt is the only remaining team with a winning record on SMU’s schedule. So the Mustangs’ conference winning percentage is going to go down (and projects to be well below Miami and Clemson) by the end of the season. 

So come that first weekend in December, SMU could miss out entirely on:

— Playing for the at-large berth in the ACC Championship at 11-1 (with a 18-15 loss to potential Big 12 Champ BYU), 8-0 in league play.

— And be too far down the CFP rankings to earn an at-large bid.

That’s a Pony Express straight to Controversy Avenue. Good luck with that, Jim.