The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) has changed its tiebreaker rules for the football championship game. This change comes after a controversial finish last season that allowed a five-loss Duke team to get in over then-No. 10-ranked Miami.
New Tiebreaker Policy
The new policy will take effect beginning with the 2026 season and reflects the league’s transition to a nine-game conference schedule. The updated tiebreaking procedure is built on three guiding principles: head-to-head results matter most, no team will be overly rewarded or penalized based on the number of conference games it played, and the team with the strongest overall body of work will earn the opportunity to compete for the ACC championship.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said, ‘Our game will feature the two most deserving teams.’ The third tier of the tiebreaker will be based on a SportSource Analytics metric used by the College Football Playoff.
The revised policy was approved following a comprehensive review by the ACC’s athletics directors. The conference said the evaluation included more than 10,000 simulated season outcomes to ensure the model fairly addressed a wide range of championship scenarios.
Original reporting: WRAL Raleigh — read the source article.
