By AARON BEARD AP Sports Writer
Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips is pushing for No. 12 Miami to earn a bid to the College Football Playoff along with the winner of the league championship game between No. 16 Virginia and Duke.
That comes with the ACC facing at least the chance of being squeezed out of the 12-team CFP entirely based on Tuesday night’s rankings.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Phillips was emphatic in making his case for the Hurricanes and then the league’s eventual champion. That comes after the ACC had a logjam of four 6-2 teams behind the Cavaliers, triggering a tiebreaker policy that worked through multiple steps before sending the five-loss Blue Devils ahead of the Hurricanes and others for Saturday night’s title game in Charlotte.
“I have conviction and confidence in our teams, starting with Miami,” Phillips told the AP. “The second piece of that is the Virginia-Duke winner should absolutely be in this College Football Playoff.”
Current scenario
The Hurricanes (10-2) have closed strong as the league’s highest-ranked team in the AP Top 25 and CFP rankings, while the Cavaliers (10-2) finished as the lone 7-1 ACC team.
Duke’s inclusion, triggered by then-ranked SMU losing at California last weekend, represents a potential chaos agent.
Automatic CFP bids go to the five highest-ranked league champions. That theoretically accounts first for the “Power Four” champions from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC. Then would come the highest-ranked champ from a Group of Five league: the American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences.
In Tuesday’s CFP rankings, Miami is a bubble team for an at-large bid at No. 12 while the Cavaliers are 17th for a simple win-and-in scenario in Charlotte.
But Duke (7-5) is unranked. Meanwhile, the American has both of its title-game teams (North Texas and Tulane) in the CFP rankings, putting that winner in line for a win-and-in ticket.
And then there’s James Madison (11-1), which entered the CFP rankings at No. 25 before Friday’s Sun Belt title game against Troy. That, along with a Duke win against Virginia, could potentially give the Sun Belt the fifth champion’s spot and leave the ACC’s CFP hopes resting with the on-the-bubble Hurricanes.
Phillips, who has previously been optimistic about landing multiple bids, knows the scenarios. He’s undeterred that the ACC deserves two bids all the same.
“I’m not naive,” he said, “but I have conviction about it.”
Miami’s case
Miami’s position stands out with the Hurricanes having a head-to-head win with Notre Dame, which sits two spots ahead in the CFP rankings despite that 27-24 season-opening loss.
That result would seemingly be a differentiator considering the teams have matching 10-2 records and comparable ESPN strength-of-schedule rankings (Notre Dame 42nd, Miami 44th). The Hurricanes have more wins against top-40 teams in ESPN’s College Football Power Index (five) than the Fighting Irish (two) and a better record against AP-ranked teams at the time of the matchup (Miami at 4-0, Notre Dame at 2-2).
Additionally, the teams had matching games against two bowl-eligible teams — home against N.C. State, at then-ranked Pittsburgh — among their four common opponents. The Hurricanes beat the Wolfpack and Panthers by a combined 65 points, more than the Irish’s 51 points in those games.
“I remain steadfast in my conviction, which has only grown stronger over the season — especially these last four weeks,” Phillips said. “The eye test, the stats, the results — they’ve earned a spot in the playoff.”
Those comparisons have also been a topic for Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich in social-media posts this week, with one noting: “Head-to-head not ‘a’ data point but ‘the’ data point!”
Phillips said he was “incredibly surprised and very disappointed” to see the Hurricanes didn’t rise after a 38-7 win against a Pitt team ranked 22nd in the CFP rankings last week. But Phillips pointed to selection committee chairman Hunter Yurachek saying no teams are locked into position, even if they’re not playing this week.
Phillips said the ACC has been in constant contact with the committee “and that’s going to continue up to the selections.”
“We know the final rankings aren’t until Sunday, so there’s time for course correction by the committee,” Phillips said. “The committee’s made it clear that idle teams can move up in the final rankings. And we’re going to continue our efforts, as there’s no question Miami’s a playoff team and they’ve earned a spot in the playoff.”
The Duke question
Virginia moved up a spot in Tuesday’s CFP rankings — “Pleased to see them move up, although I believe they should be higher,” Phillips said — to put them a win from the playoff.
A Duke win could make things dicier. But Phillips was ready to make that case, too, leaning largely on schedule strength.
The Blue Devils won the ACC tiebreaker with the Hurricanes, Georgia Tech, SMU and Pitt by virtue of its ACC opponents having the best combined winning percentage in league play (.500).
Beating the Cavaliers would mark a seventh win against a Power Four opponent, while Duke’s five losses came to teams — including at Tulane in the American — with a combined record of 46-14 (.767).
By comparison, newly ranked James Madison lost its only game to a Power Four team (at ACC member Louisville), while only one of its wins came against a team with a winning record compared to Duke’s four.
The Blue Devils’ opponents have a combined 98-58 (.628) record compared to JMU’s going 74-82 (.474), while ESPN ranks Duke’s strength of schedule at 74th compared to JMU’s at 118th.
“The management committee has made it clear this offseason that strength of schedule must be prioritized,” Phillips said.
Duke coach Manny Diaz believes the Blue Devils “absolutely” would deserve a CFP bid if they win the ACC title, noting: “Records have a lot to do with schedules.”
“I’ve spent time in the Sun Belt, I’ve coached in Conference USA, I’ve coached in those types of leagues,” Diaz said Sunday. “I was very proud of what we did when I was in those leagues. But it’s not the same week in and week out of the teams you have to play against, the players you have to play against, and what we’ve had to compete against going through the ACC this year.”