Mocked and humiliated for weeks after producing a five-loss champion (Duke) that didn’t make the School Soccer Playoff, the ACC grabbed the ultimate chuckle Saturday with Miami’s highway win on SEC turf in probably the most dramatic opening-round recreation.
Truly, the 10-3 victory over Texas A&M wasn’t the ultimate chuckle a lot as a mid-negotiation chuckle. Nevertheless it was hearty sufficient for the Massive 12 to affix within the jocularity.
The lesser of the 2 Energy 4 conferences lastly have a playoff victory, due to the Hurricanes. Their escape in School Station on Saturday morning marked the primary win for the ACC and Massive 12 within the growth period.
Groups from the SEC and Massive Ten (or Notre Dame) gained all 11 video games final 12 months within the first installment of the 12-team discipline, whereas the opening recreation of the 2025 occasion matched two groups from the SEC (Alabama and Oklahoma).
Miami’s efficiency means the SEC and Massive Ten gained’t sweep the event as soon as once more, and the timing couldn’t be higher.
Whereas the 2025 version of the CFP performs out on the sphere, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Massive 12 commissioner Brett Yormark are working with their colleagues to determine a format for future variations.
However all votes are usually not created equal. The SEC’s Greg Sankey and the Massive Ten’s Tony Petitti possess the authority, via an settlement signed within the spring of 2024, to determine the sphere dimension and format. They’re merely required to seek the advice of with the opposite conferences.
A deadline looms: Sankey and Petitti should decide by Jan. 23 if the CFP will develop to 14 or 16 groups for subsequent season. Their discussions seemingly will embody whether or not to create a 24-team occasion, and get rid of convention championship video games, as early as 2027.
Petitti, specifically, has pushed for revised variations of the CFP that swimsuit his membership and proven little curiosity in choices that profit the game writ massive. (For months, he pushed for an entry mannequin based mostly on computerized qualifiers during which the SEC and Massive Ten obtain twice the variety of assured bids because the ACC and Massive 12.)
What little leverage exists for Phillips and Yormark acquired a lift with Miami’s victory.
Subsequent up for the Tenth-seeded Hurricanes is a showdown with heavily-favored No. 2 Ohio State within the quarterfinals. In the meantime, the Massive 12’s solely participant, No. 4 Texas Tech, in an underdog towards No. 5 Oregon.
Put one other means: The ACC and Massive 12 may very well be eradicated from the CFP earlier than the semifinal spherical for the second consecutive season. And this time, their twin exits would come simply as negotiations over future editions are probably the most intense.
However courtesy of the Hurricanes, the opposite conferences have proved they belong — that they cannot solely compete with the SEC and Massive Ten however beat the behemoths.
In that regard, the ACC and Massive 12 had been the most important winners from the opening spherical.
Right here’s our have a look at the opposite winners, and some losers …
Loser: The Group of 5. The gathering of non-power conferences generated two members after Duke (8-5) gained the ACC and was excluded from the playoff, creating an additional berth for James Madison. The surprising improvement ramped up the stress on the Dukes and Tulane to show they may compete on the game’s greatest stage. As a substitute, they suffered blowout losses to Oregon and Mississippi, respectively. (Mixed rating: 92-44.) Luckily, the Group of 5’s place in future playoffs within reason safe, as a result of any transfer by the Energy 4 to exclude half the groups within the Soccer Bowl Subdivision seemingly would immediate an antitrust lawsuit.
Winner: house video games. The on-campus surroundings for CFP video games trumps neutral-site matchups by an order of magnitude — that was evident final season and once more this weekend. Hopefully, an expanded event in 2026 and past will embody a number of rounds of house video games. It’s pure lunacy that the undefeated No. 1 seed (Indiana) doubtlessly may have three playoff video games … and none of them in Bloomington.
Loser: drama. Solely one of many 4 opening-round video games produced a single-digit rating (Miami-Texas A&M), and the common margin of victory was 16.3 factors. That tracks with the common margin (15.2) from the wild card spherical video games within the 2025 NFL Playoffs. Blowouts are a part of the postseason in each sport, of us.
Winner: Alabama. Down 17-0 halfway via the second quarter in Norman on Friday night time, the Crimson Tide discovered their mojo and outscored Oklahoma 34-7 to mollify followers and polish a fame broken by the floundering end to the common season. Might Alabama win all of it? In all probability not. However the Tide definitely may win two extra video games.
Loser: Michigan. The Wolverines reportedly had Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer atop the listing for his or her teaching emptiness, however any probability to lure him away from Tuscaloosa seemingly vanished with the Crimson Tide advancing to the Rose Bowl. Michigan can’t wait till the New Yr to decide. (Or can it?)
Winner: Jedd Fisch. With DeBoer not a viable possibility for the Wolverines and Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham agreeing to an extension, Fisch, who coached in Ann Arbor underneath Jim Harbaugh within the mid-2010s, may emerge as a high goal. (Keep watch over Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, as properly.)
Loser: school soccer media. A slew of pundits trashed Alabama’s inclusion on CFP choice day and used the 17-0 deficit at Oklahoma as fodder to heap extra scorn on the Crimson Tide. What occurred subsequent in Norman created a smorgasbord of content material for the social media website @OldTakesExposed.
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Winner: FCS playoffs. Mississippi’s blowout of Tulane within the early-afternoon recreation provided followers the chance to change to the Brawl of the Wild, the place Montana State blew an enormous lead, then recovered to thump Montana within the FCS semifinals on ABC. (If there’s a greater rivalry nickname within the sport, we haven’t seen it.)
Loser: Oregon’s protection. The Geese allowed James Madison to attain 34 factors and acquire 509 yards within the last recreation of Saturday’s triple-header. Granted, JMU’s success got here after the sport had turned lopsided. Nevertheless it left the Geese annoyed nonetheless.
Winner: Oregon coach Dan Lanning. Then once more, the efficiency will give Lanning, a grasp motivator, loads of fodder over the subsequent 10 days because the Geese put together for Texas Tech within the Orange Bow.
Loser: placekickers. The opening spherical started with Oklahoma All-American Tate Sandell lacking two essential discipline objective makes an attempt towards Alabama and continued Saturday morning with the Miami and Texas A&M kickers combining to overlook 4 of six. (Luckily, accuracy improved within the last two video games of the spherical.)
Winner: CFP quarterfinal matchups. Just one workforce, Ohio State, is favored by greater than a landing, and all 4 video games on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 supply affordable paths to victory for the decrease seed. (Miami has sufficient expertise on the line of scrimmage to hold with the Buckeyes.) We anticipate a number of shut video games and much more thrills than the quarterfinals provided final season.
Loser: TNT and TBS. There’s a purpose ESPN sub-licensed two opening-round video games to Warner Bros. Discovery, then slotted the Tulane and James Madison video games within the broadcast home windows competing with the NFL’s doubleheader. The scores may very well be ghastly.
Winner: The Rose Bowl. Hardly ever does the Granddaddy have a problem with ticket gross sales, however that definitely gained’t be an issue with Indiana making its first look for the reason that 1967 season and Alabama concerned for simply the second time prior to now 80 years.
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