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What Miami's loss to Georgia Tech means for Clemson football's ACC championship hopes
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- What Miami's loss to Georgia Tech means for Clemson football's ACC championship hopes
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Miami's 28-23 upset loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday has improved Clemson football 's chances to make the ACC championship.
The No. 4 Hurricanes (9-1, 5-1) are now tied with the No. 17 Tigers (6-2, 5-1) for second in the ACC standings with No. 15 SMU (8-1, 5-0) in sole possession of first place. Clemson would be in second with a win against Virginia Tech on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), but Miami is still in position to make the conference championship over the Tigers.
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If both teams win the rest of their conference games, Miami would advance to the ACC championship game over Clemson because the tiebreaker would be win-percentage versus all common opponents. Miami and Clemson's common opponents are Wake Forest, Louisville , Florida State and Virginia Tech. Miami would be 4-0, and Clemson would be 3-1 because of its loss to Louisville, leaving the Tigers out of the title game.
In order for Clemson to make the ACC championship, it needs to win out in conference play against Virginia Tech and No. 23 Pittsburgh next week, and Miami must lose one of its last two ACC games: Wake Forest or Syracuse.
Clemson entered Saturday with a 2.5% chance to win the ACC and a 12.2% chance to make the new 12-team format for the CFP . Winning the conference is especially important this season as whichever team wins the ACC will receive an automatic bid and a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Where Clemson stands in ACC after Miami's loss to Georgia Tech
