{"id":548009,"date":"2025-11-23T13:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T13:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/548009\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T13:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T13:40:16","slug":"pitts-upset-of-georgia-tech-pushes-acc-to-brink-of-cfp-doomsday-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/548009\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitt’s upset of Georgia Tech pushes ACC to brink of CFP doomsday scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pitt.png\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The ACC’s College Football<\/a> Playoff doomsday scenario is taking shape following Pittsburgh’s<\/a> 42-28 win at No. 16 Georgia Tech<\/a> on Saturday night, which eliminated the Yellow Jackets from title contention.<\/p>\n

No. 13 Miami’s<\/a> victory at Virginia Tech<\/a>, SMU’s<\/a> 32-point blowout of Louisville<\/a> and Duke’s<\/a> win at North Carolina<\/a> further complicated the Hurricanes’ shot at reaching conference championship, but there’s still a tiny path. The four teams vying for two spots in the Dec. 6 ACC Championship in Charlotte<\/a>\u00a0are No. 19 Virginia<\/a>, Miami, Pittsburgh and SMU.<\/p>\n

The problem in the playoff discussion? Only Virginia and Miami ranked, while red-hot Group of Five squads Tulane<\/a> (9-2) and James Madison<\/a> (10-1) continue climbing in the committee’s eyes. Both conference frontrunners won on Saturday and control their own destinies.<\/p>\n

Virginia will clinch a spot in the ACC title game with a win over Virginia Tech. SMU can get in with a win over Cal. Pittsburgh will reach Charlotte if it beats Miami and either Virginia or SMU loses.<\/p>\n

For Miami \u2014 it’s a long shot. The Hurricanes must beat Pittsburgh, hope Virginia loses to Virginia Tech and get a win from California over SMU.<\/p>\n

In other words, the Hokies and Golden Bears have become agents of chaos in the ACC. Even if Pitt or SMU wins the league, there are no guarantees either will be ranked ahead of the Group of Five champions two weeks from now.<\/p>\n

ACC standings after Week 13<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Record<\/p>\n

Next week<\/p>\n

No. 19 Virginia<\/p>\n

9-2, 6-1<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech (Win to reach ACC final)<\/p>\n

SMU<\/p>\n

8-3, 6-1<\/p>\n

at Cal (Win to reach ACC final)<\/p>\n

Pitt<\/p>\n

8-3, 6-1<\/p>\n

Miami (Win to reach ACC final with Virginia or SMU loss)<\/p>\n

No. 16 Georgia Tech<\/p>\n

9-1, 6-2<\/p>\n

N\/A<\/p>\n

No. 13 Miami<\/p>\n

9-2, 5-2<\/p>\n

at Pitt (Win to reach ACC final with Virginia and SMU loss)<\/p>\n

Duke\u00a0<\/p>\n

6-5, 5-2<\/p>\n

Wake Forest<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re one of those crazies who roots for a conference in the playoff after your preferred team is excluded, here’s what ACC fans need to hope happens over the next two weekends to all but guarantee entry:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Virginia wins out and takes the ACC crown — OR — James Madison suffers an unexpected loss — OR — Miami wins out and gets extended help.<\/p>\n

Anything happening outside of those three possibilities leaves everything up to the committee, whose goal is to put the 12 “best teams” in the playoff and not the most deserving. And with the stipulation five of those bids are given as auto-conference champions, a potentially unranked winner of the ACC isn’t going to have much of a say.<\/p>\n

Keep an eye on Tuesday night’s rankings. Where SMU or Pittsburgh land in relation to various Group of Five options is extremely important moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The ACC’s College Football Playoff doomsday scenario is taking shape following Pittsburgh’s 42-28 win at No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[85388,67834,21178,331,85389,7643,7,4716,21207,577,26726,4717,85392,85390,3861,4710,4711,85391,4718,3863,3201],"class_list":{"0":"post-548009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-acc-championship","9":"tag-acc-college-football-playoff","10":"tag-charlotte-49ers","11":"tag-college-football","12":"tag-college-football-playoff-bids","13":"tag-duke-blue-devils","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","16":"tag-james-madison-dukes","17":"tag-louisville-cardinals","18":"tag-miami-fla-hurricanes","19":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","20":"tag-pitt-acc-championship","21":"tag-pitt-vs-georgia-tech","22":"tag-pittsburgh-panthers","23":"tag-smu-mustangs","24":"tag-tulane-green-wave","25":"tag-virginia-acc-championship","26":"tag-virginia-cavaliers","27":"tag-virginia-tech-hokies","28":"tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}