College football roundtable: Is Clemson the ACC’s only playoff hope?

You’ve got the College Football Playoff rankings on your mind, and so do we at The News & Observer’s venerable college roundtable, where for many moons now we’ve gathered around this circular slab of oak and debated college football’s issues of the day.

Such as, for instance, whether Clemson is the ACC’s only playoff hope. You have questions, reporters Andrew Carter, Joe Giglio and Laura Keeley, and columnist Luke DeCock, have answers:

Q: Is Clemson the ACC’s one and only hope for a representative in the College Football Playoff? And would the Tigers stand a chance of making the playoffs if they were to lose a game?

Andrew Carter (North Carolina beat reporter): Yes (probably) and yes. But as crazy as it sounds, Florida State and North Carolina – and especially Florida State – still have a shot at the playoff. Both teams would need to win out. And hope for help elsewhere.

But it could happen. FSU might actually have a compelling case if it beats Clemson on Saturday, beats Florida on Nov. 28 and wins the ACC title game. As for UNC: win out, beat Clemson and hope that a bunch of other teams lose – and often. Crazier things have happened. Right, Duke?

Joe Giglio (N.C. State beat reporter): An undefeated Clemson is the ACC’s only realistic chance at taking a spot in the four-team playoff. There might be a scenario where a one-loss Clemson gets compared to a one-loss Notre Dame (Clemson beat Notre Dame by two points) but that would require a very specific window with no other factors.

A 12-1 UNC, with a win over Clemson, would need to be compared to two-loss Power 5 teams. The loss to South Carolina doesn’t hurt UNC as much as the two wins over Division I-AA opponents (Delaware, North Carolina A&T). One of the main reasons Ohio State got in last year, with a similar loss to UNC’s this year, was it didn’t play any games against Division I-AA opponents.

Luke DeCock (columnist): Yes. Someone’s going to get left out, whether it’s the Pac-12 champ, Notre Dame or an ACC champ that isn’t a 13-0 Clemson (and most likely two of the above). Florida State and North Carolina aren’t going to cut it, even with a win over Clemson on the resume. A one-loss Clemson team has a shot, but would need a lot of help – like a Big 12 or SEC meltdown, or both.

Laura Keeley (Duke beat reporter): Yes and no, they would not, because you have to figure that a one-loss Notre Dame team would be looming, and the Fighting Irish’s two-point road loss to Clemson in the rain would be far more forgivable than any Tigers loss to a relatively weak ACC team. Even in the title game, I think a loss to a North Carolina-type team would bury Clemson behind the Irish and any one-loss team from any of the other, stronger Power 5 conferences.

Q: Clearly, the public perception is that the ACC has an officiating problem (exhibit A: what happened at the end of the Miami-Duke game last weekend). What can be done to address the league’s officiating woes?

AC: Bad officiating isn’t just an ACC issue, it’s a college football issue. It’s time for the leaders of the sport to get together and figure out a way to make officiating more of a full-time, sanctioned job than what it is now.

Make it a viable career. Offer better training. And get rid of handling officiating on a conference level. Major college football is big business. You can’t have what happened in that Duke-Miami game.

JG: I think acknowledging the errors, and establishing a system of accountability, is an excellent start. Creating a command center for replay, which puts more trained eyes on the replay – and away from the stadium – should help catch more mistakes. A standard number of cameras at each game, and in certain positions (i.e. the goal line) would also help.

Officiating is not an easy job and the best officials are going to migrate to the NFL, but that doesn’t mean the product needs to suffer to the point that games are being decided by missed calls and missed replays.

LD: The ACC has officiating issues (and not just in football – look how long it enabled Karl Hess long after his antics overshadowed his work) but it could be worse. Stay up late and watch a Pac-12 game sometime. The left hand doesn’t even know there’s a right hand, let alone what it’s doing. Collectively, ACC officials do a pretty good job. The entire profession is scrambling to keep up now that everyone with a DVR is an expert.

Publicly acknowledging the screw-ups in the Duke-Miami game is a step toward credibility, especially after the ACC’s preposterous defense of the Ryan Switzer fair-catch mix-up. Officials aren’t perfect. We all know that. The ACC too often pretends they are. If they make a mistake, admit it and move on.

LK: First and foremost, actually employ better officials. That would take care of the problem. Next, try better transparency. Case in point: a few weeks ago when the referees, admittedly, mistakenly attributed a fair catch to Ryan Switzer, wiping out a monster punt return. An official admitted to Larry Fedora that he blew the call, but then the ACC comes out and defends it afterward? Not a good look, and it gets even uglier when the wrong team wins a football game.

Q: If North Carolina beats Duke on Saturday can the Tar Heels start making their reservations for Charlotte and the ACC championship game?

AC: In the immortal words of Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend.” None of the Tar Heels’ remaining games are gimmies, or anything close to it. They could lose any of them. (And win any of them.)

A victory against Duke would give UNC a significant edge down the stretch. But with games left against Miami, and at Virginia Tech and N.C. State, it’s still too early to say UNC has the Coastal won.

JG: They’d have a tiebreaker over Duke and Pitt, which is great, but not quite over Miami. That finish – Miami, at Virginia Tech (Frank Beamer’s last home game) and at N.C. State — is not a slam dunk.

Miami has no coach, and its quarterback is hurt, but if that gift at the end of the Duke game is not a sign from the football gods, then it’s a cruel karmic prank on the Blue Devils.

LD: Absolutely. The Tar Heels will have a two-game lead on everyone but Pittsburgh and the tie-breaker with the Panthers. It’s not an easy closing schedule – Miami, at Virginia Tech in Frank Beamer’s last home game and at N.C. State – but with a win over Duke, North Carolina will have a mulligan. And might just need it.

LK: Not quite yet – while the Tar Heels would be completely in the driver’s seat, they do have that awful, terrible loss to South Carolina blemishing their resume. Miami, Virginia Tech and N.C. State will all be tougher games than that one UNC blew against the Gamecocks. So while I would be surprised if a victorious UNC team fails to make it to Charlotte, I wouldn’t quite put down a nonrefundable deposit on a room yet.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 4:24 PM with the headline "College football roundtable: Is Clemson the ACC’s only playoff hope?."