The Miami Hurricanes run onto the field for the start of the football game against the Florida State Seminoles at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday, October 17, 2026.
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ
adiaz@miamiherald.com
The Miami Hurricanes are halfway through their 2026 regular-season schedule and almost halfway through their Atlantic Coast Conference slate.
And right now, they’re sitting pretty atop the league standings.
Miami (6-0, 4-0 ACC) is the only team in the 17-team ACC still undefeated in league play (and overall, for that matter).
What’s happening below Miami is a jumbled mess that 1.) could allow for Miami to have some wiggle room in its quest to reach the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 5 in Charlotte and 2.) could very likely result in more chaos like we had a year ago when five teams ended up tied for second place before five-loss Duke ultimately prevailed as the second representative to face Virginia in the conference title game.
Adding to the potential chaos: the ACC’s imbalanced league schedule, with some teams playing nine conference games and others eight which sets up for some potential wonky tiebreaker scenarios (perhaps even more so than a team advancing by having a higher conference opponent win percentage).
The winner of the conference title game this year is guaranteed a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff field — the CFP shifted its autobid rules from being the five highest-ranked conference champions to the conference champions from each Power 4 conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference) plus the highest-ranked Group of 6 team, with Notre Dame also getting an autobid if it’s ranked in the top 12. So while Duke missed the playoff field last year despite winning the conference title, that won’t be the case this year’s conference champion regardless of record or ranking.
As we get into the thick of conference play, here is a look at the current ACC landscape, including full standings for the 17-team league, each team’s remaining schedule and what it would take for Miami to get to the conference title game for just the second time and first time since 2017.
ACC game results this week
No. 24 SMU 23, Virginia 13
Clemson 37, Charleston Southern 0
Boston College 27, Pittsburgh 21
Virginia Tech 34, Georgia Tech 24
North Carolina 24, Duke 20
No. 3 Miami 43, Florida State 35 (2OT)
Stanford 34, Elon 7
Louisville 34, Syracuse 26
No. 21 Wake Forest 41, California 7
ACC standings after Week 7
Miami: 6-0, 4-0 ACC
Wake Forest: 6-1, 4-1 ACC
SMU: 5-1, 3-1 ACC
Clemson: 4-2, 2-1 ACC
North Carolina: 4-2, 2-1 ACC
Louisville: 4-3, 3-2 ACC
Pittsburgh: 5-2, 2-2 ACC
California: 3-4, 2-2 ACC
Virginia Tech: 5-2, 2-2 ACC
Virginia: 4-3, 2-2 ACC
Georgia Tech: 2-4, 1-2 ACC
Duke: 4-2, 1-2 ACC
Boston College: 3-3, 1-2 ACC
NC State: 3-3, 1-2 ACC
Florida State: 3-4, 1-3 ACC
Stanford: 3-4, 1-3 ACC
Syracuse: 2-4, 0-4 ACC
Remaining ACC schedules
Miami: vs. Pittsburgh, at North Carolina, vs. Duke, vs. Virginia Tech, vs. Boston College
Wake Forest: vs. Virginia, at SMU, at Georgia Tech, vs. Duke
SMU: vs. California, at Syracuse, vs. Virginia Tech, vs. Wake Forest, at Stanford
Clemson: vs. Virginia Tech, at Florida State, at Syracuse, vs. Georgia Tech, at Duke
North Carolina: vs. Syracuse, vs. Miami, vs. Louisville, at Virginia, vs. NC State
Louisville: vs. Stanford, at Georgia Tech, at North Carolina, vs. Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh: at Miami, vs. Georgia Tech, vs. Florida State, at Louisville, at California
California: at SMU, at NC State, at Virginia, vs. Stanford, vs. Pittsburgh
Virginia Tech: at Clemson, at SMU, vs. Stanford, at Miami, vs. Virginia
Virginia: vs. Duke, at Wake Forest, vs. California, vs. North Carolina, at Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech: vs. Boston College, at Pittsburgh, vs. Louisville, at Clemson, vs. Wake Forest
Duke: at Virginia, vs. Boston College, at NC State, at Miami, vs. Clemson, at Wake Forest
Boston College: at Georgia Tech, at Duke, vs. Florida State, vs. Syracuse, at Miami
NC State: at Stanford, vs. California, vs. Duke, vs. Syracuse, at Florida State, at North Carolina
Florida State: vs. Clemson, at Boston College, at Pittsburgh, vs. NC State
Stanford: vs. NC State, at Louisville, at Virginia Tech, at California, vs. SMU
Syracuse: at North Carolina, vs. SMU, vs. Clemson, at NC State, at Boston College
What it means
Right now, the Hurricanes are the only team without a blemish on their win-loss record and thus would be one of two teams in the ACC title game, but there are four teams with just one loss in league play in Wake Forest, SMU, Clemson and North Carolina. Wake Forest plays SMU on Nov. 14. Miami plays North Carolina on Oct. 31. Clemson, meanwhile, doesn’t have any of the teams left on their schedule.
Miami, Wake Forest and SMU all play nine ACC games this year. Clemson and North Carolina each play eight.
That means, at most, there will be at most four teams with zero or one ACC loss at the end of the regular season.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume Miami beats UNC everyone else from this group wins out in ACC play save for the Wake Forest-SMU game. This would have Miami in the title game and two teams — one of SMU-Wake Forest as well as Clemson — vying for the second spot.
The ACC’s new tiebreaker is only two steps now. The first is head-to-head, which wouldn’t apply here since Clemson did not play SMU nor Wake Forest this season. The second is simply the team “with the better ranking in the Team Success Ranking provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of all regular-season games.” This is a metric that is not publicly available, and thus the exact team would not be known until the ACC announces.
Now, let’s say that UNC upsets Miami but everything else remains the same. Now we have four one-loss teams in Miami, UNC, Clemson and the winner of Wake Forest-SMU. The process above would simply be repeated twice. Still pretty straightforward.
For a final one, let’s get a little more chaotic. Let’s say Miami goes undefeated (which means a win over UNC and thus a second Tar Heels loss), Wake Forest and SMU each lose a second game and Clemson wins out in conference play. That means Clemson, the only ACC team with one conference loss, would be a lock for the title game against Miami, right?
Wrong.
Because of the imbalanced schedule, the ACC says teams are tied in the standings if they have “either the same number of Conference wins or the same number of Conference losses” as the team with the highest win percentage being factored in. Since Clemson plays eight games and would be 7-1 in this scenario, any team that plays nine ACC games and goes 7-2 would be considered “tied” with Clemson and therefore be back in play.
Yeah, this could be a doozy again.
Long story short: For the Hurricanes’ sanity, just win out in league play, get to Charlotte and let everyone else sort things out.
.JPG)
Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.