ACC shows that CFP automatic bids are a bad idea

The College Football Playoff format for 2025 is locked in. At least one ACC football team will make the 12-team CFP field. Should that be the case? The ACC watched Virginia and Louisville lose on Saturday as home favorites, while Duke lost to UConn. The conference is one big, cluttered mess. Every ACC team will likely have at least two losses, and the conference champion could have three or even four losses if the dominoes fall in the right (or wrong) direction.

Let’s be clear about this: We aren’t hating on the ACC just for kicks. It’s much more about the ACC simply having the dynamics and traits of a conference that shouldn’t have an automatic seat at the table in the 12-team playoff field. Let’s walk through this conversation:

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets might be the team that makes it easy to determine whether the ACC deserves a bid in the CFP. If the Jackets can beat Georgia later this season and finish as a 12-1 ACC champion, no one would question Tech’s legitimacy or worthiness as a playoff team. However, if Tech loses that game, we could be looking at an ACC Championship Game with two teams outside the top 15, maybe even the top 20. Miami is No. 16, but the Canes are almost certain to miss the ACC title game because of tiebreakers.

Duke Blue Devils

This is the real ACC nightmare: Duke has four losses, but only one in the ACC. The idea of a four-loss team making the playoff is offensive and an insult to 9-3 teams, which played good competition and bagged quality wins. If we are to entertain the idea of a four-loss team being playoff-worthy, that team should have multiple elite wins. Duke does not.

Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia has only one ACC loss and could still make the ACC Championship Game. The Cavaliers are not scheduled to play either Georgia Tech or Miami and have two losses against generally mediocre opponents. Virginia getting in with three losses would be almost as bad as Duke getting in with four.

Miami Hurricanes

Even with two losses, Miami has the best resume of any ACC team due to wins over Notre Dame and South Florida. Yet, as we have noted, the Canes are unlikely to make the ACC title game. This is the ACC’s problem: The best team won’t be the automatic qualifier.

NFC South

The people in the ACC footprint know all about NFC South football. Georgia Tech fans who follow the Atlanta Falcons and North Carolina fans who follow the Carolina Panthers are aware of past seasons in which the NFC South champion did not have a winning record. Football is not baseball. This is a sport with very few games played. Winning games has to matter. No NFL team should make the playoffs with an 8-9 record. No team should make the CFP with four or more losses. 9-3 teams with no high-end wins shouldn’t get in either.

Not SEC or Big Ten bias

This is not a pro-SEC talking point. Any conference with a four-loss champion or a weak three-loss champion shouldn’t get an automatic bid. We should encourage strong nonconference scheduling and overall body of work. If you wanted to say Miami, if it goes 10-2, should get in and the ACC champion should be discarded (in the event that Georgia Tech loses to Georgia), that’s a reasonable argument. It’s another way to reform the system: The best team, not the conference champion, gets the autobid if the conference champion doesn’t meet a minimum standard.

Quality body of work

We should be able to look at any CFP team’s resume and say that team really did achieve something. Other than Miami, the ACC won’t have such a team in 2025 unless Georgia Tech beats Georgia. We shouldn’t hand out playoff bids automatically. They should be earned — always.

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Reporting by Matt Zemek, College Sports Wire