Pittsburgh’s victory at Virginia ensured that the mess that has become the ACC Coastal Division standings will go through Virginia Tech for the Miami Hurricanes to have a chance a repeating their ACC Coastal Division title.
The Panthers victory on Friday night ensured that Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech are now the only teams in the Coastal that control their own destinies. The Miami Hurricanes likely need one more Virginia loss or potentially to finish in a three-way tie with Pittsburgh and Virginia.
Virginia Tech’s schedule over the final three weeks of the season will have the greatest impact on who wins the Coastal in 2018. After playing Boston College this week the Hokies travel to Pittsburgh next weekend before hosting Miami and Virginia to finish the season.
For all intent and purposes, the Miami Hurricanes hopes of repeating in the ACC Coastal hinge with how Virginia Tech plays over the final three weeks of November. Every game the Hokies play after this weekend will have a major impact on Miami’s chances of repeating in the Coastal Division.
| Overall | Conference | SRS | Polls | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s | ||||||||||||||
| Coastal | W | L | Pct | W | L | Pct | Pts | Pts | SRS | SOS | AP Curr | AP Pre | AP High | Notes |
| Pitt | 5 | 4 | .556 | 4 | 1 | .800 | 27.4 | 30.4 | 4.98 | 5.54 | ||||
| Virginia Tech | 4 | 3 | .571 | 3 | 1 | .750 | 32.1 | 28.0 | 0.05 | -1.66 | 20 | 12 | ||
| Virginia | 6 | 3 | .667 | 4 | 2 | .667 | 26.6 | 19.2 | 6.79 | -0.10 | 23 | 23 | ||
| Miami (FL) | 5 | 3 | .625 | 2 | 2 | .500 | 34.5 | 19.3 | 9.08 | 1.95 | 8 | 8 | ||
| Georgia Tech | 4 | 4 | .500 | 2 | 3 | .400 | 38.9 | 28.3 | 3.39 | -1.23 | ||||
| Duke | 5 | 3 | .625 | 1 | 3 | .250 | 31.4 | 23.5 | 7.89 | 2.26 | 22 | |||
| North Carolina | 1 | 6 | .143 | 1 | 4 | .200 | 23.0 | 34.3 | -6.99 | 3.01 |
Provided by CFB at Sports Reference: View Original Table
Generated 11/3/2018.
Virginia finishes the season with two tough road games after hosting Liberty in a non-conference game next weekend. The Cavaliers travel to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech in two weeks. They play at Virginia Tech on November 23 which is the day after Thanksgiving.
Miami, Pittsburgh and Virginia could potentially finish in a three-way tie in the Coastal at 6-2. That would occur if Miami and Virginia win out and Pittsburgh does the same with the exception of losing to Miami the last weekend of the season.
Since all three teams would have beaten each other the next step would be to go through the Coastal Division Standings and proceed down the list from top to bottom among the teams four down through seven until a tiebreaker was determined. In this case, the fourth-place team would likely become the one to break the tie.
Tiebreaker Courtesy of TheACC.Com
"1. Combined head-to-head win percentage among the tied teams.2. Win percentage of the tied teams within the division.3. Head-to-head competition versus the team within the division with the best overall (divisional and non-divisional) Conference win percentage, and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken first to last, using the league’s tie-breaker policies.4. Combined win percentage versus all common non-divisional opponents.5. Overall win percentage versus non-divisional opponents.6. Win percentage versus common non-divisional opponents based upon their order of finish (overall win percentage) and proceeding through other common non-divisional opponents based upon their divisional order of finish.7. The tied team with the higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of regular season games.8. The representative shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or the Commissioner’s designee."
The way the current tiebreaker is set up is somewhat confusing to try and project. Once the season is complete it’s much easier to understand.
What should be done is for the ACC to make division games after head to head among three or more teams a tiebreaker. Miami split its two crossover games this season. They defeated Florida State and lost to Boston College.
If the Hurricanes finish in a three-way tie with Pittsburgh and Virginia the likely fourth-place team would be Virginia Tech. Should that happen all three teams would have defeated the Hokies. After Virginia Tech would likely be Georgia Tech.
Pittsburgh already defeated the Yellow Jackets. Miami and Virginia will play Georgia Tech later this month. For that scenario to happen all three teams will have had to have won against the Yellow Jackets too. The only teams left are Duke and North Carolina. It’s basically a mess that needs to just play out.
The best scenario for the Miami Hurricanes at this point is to hope that Virginia loses one of its final two games on the road and for the Hurricanes to win out. It’s headache inducing just thinking about breaking the three-way tie.
The more sensible divisional record as a tiebreaker would favor Pittsburgh. The Panthers defeated Syracuse earlier this season.
Pittsburgh has their second ACC crossover game against Wake Forest the week before they travel to South Florida to play at Miami. A three-way tie will have meant that the Panthers defeated the Demon Deacons.
That tiebreaker doesn’t matter in 2018. At this point, the best thing that can happen for Miami is for Virginia to lose once and win out. If that happens Miami wins the Coastal.