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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.<\/p>\n
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ<\/p>\n
adiaz@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
The Miami Hurricanes are halfway through their 2026 regular-season schedule and almost halfway through their Atlantic Coast Conference slate.<\/p>\n
And right now, they\u2019re sitting pretty atop the league standings.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
What\u2019s 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<\/a> before five-loss Duke ultimately prevailed as the second representative to face Virginia in the conference title game.<\/p>\n Adding to the potential chaos: the ACC\u2019s imbalanced league schedule, with some teams playing nine conference games and others eight which sets up for some potential wonky tiebreaker scenarios<\/a> (perhaps even more so than a team advancing by having a higher conference opponent win percentage).<\/p>\n The winner of the conference title game this year is guaranteed a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff field \u2014 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\u2019s ranked in the top 12. So while Duke missed the playoff field last year despite winning the conference title, that won\u2019t be the case this year\u2019s conference champion regardless of record or ranking.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, each team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n ACC game results this week<\/p>\n No. 24 SMU 23, Virginia 13<\/p>\n Clemson 37, Charleston Southern 0<\/p>\n Boston College 27, Pittsburgh 21<\/p>\n Virginia Tech 34, Georgia Tech 24<\/p>\n North Carolina 24, Duke 20<\/p>\n No. 3 Miami 43, Florida State 35 (2OT)<\/p>\n Stanford 34, Elon 7<\/p>\n Louisville 34, Syracuse 26<\/p>\n No. 21 Wake Forest 41, California 7<\/p>\n ACC standings after Week 7<\/p>\n Miami: 6-0, 4-0 ACC<\/p>\n Wake Forest: 6-1, 4-1 ACC<\/p>\n SMU: 5-1, 3-1 ACC<\/p>\n Clemson: 4-2, 2-1 ACC<\/p>\n North Carolina: 4-2, 2-1 ACC<\/p>\n Louisville: 4-3, 3-2 ACC<\/p>\n Pittsburgh: 5-2, 2-2 ACC<\/p>\n California: 3-4, 2-2 ACC<\/p>\n Virginia Tech: 5-2, 2-2 ACC<\/p>\n Virginia: 4-3, 2-2 ACC<\/p>\n Georgia Tech: 2-4, 1-2 ACC<\/p>\n Duke: 4-2, 1-2 ACC<\/p>\n Boston College: 3-3, 1-2 ACC<\/p>\n NC State: 3-3, 1-2 ACC<\/p>\n Florida State: 3-4, 1-3 ACC<\/p>\n Stanford: 3-4, 1-3 ACC<\/p>\n Syracuse: 2-4, 0-4 ACC<\/p>\n Remaining ACC schedules<\/p>\n Miami: vs. Pittsburgh, at North Carolina, vs. Duke, vs. Virginia Tech, vs. Boston College<\/p>\n Wake Forest: vs. Virginia, at SMU, at Georgia Tech, vs. Duke<\/p>\n SMU: vs. California, at Syracuse, vs. Virginia Tech, vs. Wake Forest, at Stanford<\/p>\n Clemson: vs. Virginia Tech, at Florida State, at Syracuse, vs. Georgia Tech, at Duke<\/p>\n North Carolina: vs. Syracuse, vs. Miami, vs. Louisville, at Virginia, vs. NC State<\/p>\n Louisville: vs. Stanford, at Georgia Tech, at North Carolina, vs. Pittsburgh<\/p>\n Pittsburgh: at Miami, vs. Georgia Tech, vs. Florida State, at Louisville, at California<\/p>\n California: at SMU, at NC State, at Virginia, vs. Stanford, vs. Pittsburgh<\/p>\n Virginia Tech: at Clemson, at SMU, vs. Stanford, at Miami, vs. Virginia<\/p>\n Virginia: vs. Duke, at Wake Forest, vs. California, vs. North Carolina, at Virginia Tech<\/p>\n Georgia Tech: vs. Boston College, at Pittsburgh, vs. Louisville, at Clemson, vs. Wake Forest<\/p>\n Duke: at Virginia, vs. Boston College, at NC State, at Miami, vs. Clemson, at Wake Forest<\/p>\n Boston College: at Georgia Tech, at Duke, vs. Florida State, vs. Syracuse, at Miami<\/p>\n NC State: at Stanford, vs. California, vs. Duke, vs. Syracuse, at Florida State, at North Carolina<\/p>\n Florida State: vs. Clemson, at Boston College, at Pittsburgh, vs. NC State<\/p>\n Stanford: vs. NC State, at Louisville, at Virginia Tech, at California, vs. SMU<\/p>\n Syracuse: at North Carolina, vs. SMU, vs. Clemson, at NC State, at Boston College<\/p>\n What it means<\/p>\n 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\u2019t have any of the teams left on their schedule.<\/p>\n Miami, Wake Forest and SMU all play nine ACC games this year. Clemson and North Carolina each play eight.<\/p>\n That means, at most, there will be at most four teams with zero or one ACC loss at the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n For the sake of simplicity, let\u2019s 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 \u2014 one of SMU-Wake Forest as well as Clemson \u2014 vying for the second spot.<\/p>\n The ACC\u2019s new tiebreaker<\/a> is only two steps now. The first is head-to-head, which wouldn\u2019t apply here since Clemson did not play SMU nor Wake Forest this season. The second is simply the team \u201cwith the better ranking in the Team Success Ranking provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of all regular-season games.\u201d This is a metric that is not publicly available, and thus the exact team would not be known until the ACC announces.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n For a final one, let\u2019s get a little more chaotic. Let\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n Wrong.<\/p>\n Because of the imbalanced schedule, the ACC says teams are tied in the standings if they have \u201ceither the same number of Conference wins or the same number of Conference losses\u201d 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 \u201ctied\u201d with Clemson and therefore be back in play.<\/p>\n Yeah, this could be a doozy again.<\/p>\n Long story short: For the Hurricanes\u2019 sanity, just win out in league play, get to Charlotte and let everyone else sort things out.<\/p>\n