Could ACC Football be left out of College Football Playoff this year?

ACC Football has been represented in the first four additions of the playoff system, but could there be a way this Power Five league is left home?

When Alabama and Georgia battled it out last season for the national title, it concluded the four addition of the annual College Football Playoff that was supposed to make the sport better. While that last part is debatable, one thing isn’t: just two Power Five conferences have sent a team to the system every year. One is the SEC, while the other belongs to ACC Football.

Yes, that’s right. The basketball league that still doesn’t sometimes act like it wants to be a football conference has sent their champ each season to the four teams system: as FSU football went the inaugural season (undefeated, yet seeded third for some reason) while the Clemson Tigers have gone each of the last three times.

But is there a chance that the conference could be the one on the outside looking in come December 2nd when the four teams are announced? Sadly, yes.

Entering the season, there were many experts who thought that Clemson would make it a four-peat for ACC Football. Right now, the Tigers look like they may just happened to be only chance for the conference to be in the playoff again – and here’s the reason why the other competitors don’t have a shot:

• N.C. State is the only other team who is unbeaten right now in the ACC, so assuming for a second they upset Clemson next week they would have just two big wins if they run the table in the Tigers and a ranked Miami team if the Hurricanes also run the table and they meet in Charlotte.
• As for those Hurricanes, Miami already has one loss on their resume (LSU) that lost some luster when they lost to Florida last week and they still have Georgia and Alabama on the schedule. Miami’s other problem is their regular season wins wouldn’t be great (FSU and Va. Tech looking down) with a win over unbeaten Clemson or N.C. State in the title game being the only ranked one.
• The Hokies have what the playoff committee likes to call a “quality loss” against Notre Dame – but also have one of the embarrassing losses against Old Dominion. Even if they win out and beat ranked Miami and either Clemson or N.C. State, that loss to the Monarchs is going to haunt them the whole time.
• The Florida State Seminoles? Well, first they need to…nope, can’t even do that with a  straight face.

In essence, the Clemson Tigers at this point seem to be the only hope for ACC football to be in the playoff system. That’s not saying that strange things can’t take place and teams like Miami or N.C. State can’t do that job – but it’s going to take a lot for those things to happened just because of what’s left on their slates (and the Wolfpack canceling that game against ranked West Virginia hurt).

ACC football could also be helped by the fact that another Power Five conference – the Pac 12 – is even more pathetic at this point and may not send their champ to the system. Of course, that spot will end up just going to another SEC team in all likelihood.