Imagine the scene on November 26 in the ACC Atlantic: should Louisville, Clemson and Florida State each have one loss and only one loss, FSU has lost to Louisville, the Cardinals lost to Clemson, and the Tigers fall to the Noles, none of the six tiebreakers would decide the Atlantic’s champion. So what would the ACC do if this wacky scenario comes to pass?
The conference has partnered with SportSource analytics, the same company that gives stats to the College Football Playoff committee, for a seventh a possibly decisive tiebreaker: a team rating score metric.
This particular ranking, though — a team rating score metric — is not given to the CFP committee members, and it’s not free to the public like the former BCS standings, which was also used to break three-way ties. The highest-ranked team in the team rating score metric would win the Atlantic Division, and SportSource Analytics would permit the ACC to release the ranking of the teams in the conference in the event it is required to break a tie.
The ACC apparently just realized this could end up being an issue.
“The decision to change our tiebreaker from utilizing the CFP ranking to the Team Rating Score was based on the reality that we’re not in a position to wait until Tuesday night to determine a division champion that’s going to participate in Saturday’s championship game,” ACC senior associate commissioner Michael Strickland said. “This summer, our athletic directors unanimously decided to insert this metric as the seventh and final step before a blind draw.”
Normally, this score is only available to platform subscribers, which are not the average football fans in Clemson, Louisville, or Tallahassee. Those platform subscribers, which can include coaches, AD’s, conferences, agents, etc. can get this rating included but for a cool price of $10,000.
Again, this scenario will only come to pass if Louisville, Clemson and Florida State each lose only one game, to each other, but can you imagine the craziness and outcry if this actually has to be used and the metric is only just made public then? And to think that a private company’s rating (which could easily be skewed on a number of factors) could potentially decide a birth in the College Football Playoff…
We can only end this story with one thing: #GoACC.
[ESPN]