Miami AD: ACC should revisit tiebreaker system

Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich told ESPN on Monday that the ACC should revisit its tiebreaker system to ensure the conference "puts its best foot forward" in the conference championship game.

No. 12 Miami (10-2) finished in a five-way tie for second place in the ACC at 6-2, but Duke (7-5) made it into the championship game against No. 16 Virginia (10-2) based on the fifth tiebreaker: conference opponent win percentage.

"We've got to get a little better at that," Radakovich said, "and I can't tell you what the answer is right now, but I think we've got to look at some different things that might be able to streamline that and make sure that the league is going to put its best foot forward."

ACC coaches and athletic directors voted for the tiebreakers that were added once they removed divisions in 2023. The other Power 4 conferences largely follow similar tiebreaker procedures. The American uses the last available CFP rankings in the case of tied teams with no head-to-head result. The Mountain West used a metrics-based tiebreaker to break a four-way tie for its championship game.

Radakovich said the ACC tiebreakers were based largely on how they were done when leagues had divisions.

"It's too complicated, and we need to look at other options that might make it more simple, but yet take into account the idea of multiple teams being tied," Radakovich said. "The old system probably didn't contemplate four or five teams being tied for a second-place spot."

Miami is left to fight for an at-large berth into the College Football Playoff. The Hurricanes are ranked No. 12 heading into the next CFP rankings release Tuesday.

The biggest point of contention for those at Miami centers on Notre Dame, a team the Hurricanes beat head-to-head. Though the teams have the same record, the Irish are ranked four spots higher.

"At the end of the day, when things are being compared, you always want a head-to-head contest so you can really make it clear to everybody, so there's no speculation," Miami coach Cristobal told ESPN in a phone interview. "Well, college football world, we had that. I believe 9.2 million people saw it."

Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24 in Week 1, holding star running back Jeremiyah Love to a season-low 33 yards. It was the only game this season that he did not score a touchdown. The two teams also played four common ACC opponents, all of them comparable blowouts.

Of the teams currently ranked in the top 15, Miami is the only one not ranked ahead of the team it beat head-to-head. Georgia is ahead of Ole Miss; Texas Tech is ahead of BYU; Oklahoma is ahead of Alabama; and the Crimson Tide are ahead of Vanderbilt.

Selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek said last week that Miami and Notre Dame were compared in the same pool, and the committee still believes Notre Dame "is a complete team" and "deserves to be ranked where they are."

Miami lost to Louisville in late October and SMU in November, but Cristobal points out that the Hurricanes were down six starters against the Mustangs. Since that loss Nov. 1, Miami has reeled off four double-digit wins -- including a 38-7 victory at Pitt this past weekend.

"There's no one playing better football than Miami right now," Cristobal said. "We're playing better football than we were playing when we were No. 2 in the country.

"The whole world wants to see Miami in there, and they want to see it for the right reasons. Malachi Toney and Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain and Carson Beck are some of the most exciting players in the country, and I think people also realize that Miami has the trenches to compete or beat anybody in the country."