Greg McElroy considers ‘chaos scenario’ involving Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina
There are currently three undefeated teams remaining in the ACC in Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina.
All three have the opportunity to finish the season undefeated, because none of the three play each other during the regular season.
ESPN analyst Greg McElroy is well aware that it’s unlikely all three finish the regular season undefeated, but he did address the possibility recently on the Always College Football podcast. McElroy spoke about all three ACC teams, starting with Florida State.
“Florida State definitely has the best resume at the moment. You’ve got a win against LSU in the nonconference. You’ve got a win against Clemson on the road. That, I think, is pretty dang impressive,” McElroy said. “You get Duke at home. You’ve got Miami at home on Nov. 11. You also have to play against Florida on the final week of the regular season. You really like their chances. … Or at least I do [of going undefeated].”
Out of the three teams, McElroy believes North Carolina has the toughest path to remaining unbeaten.
“North Carolina has played quite a bit lighter schedule. They obviously took care of Pittsburgh, but they looked really good, I mean really good, against Syracuse last week,” McElroy said. “Now they have quite a few games that will be pretty significant tests. Miami at home this weekend, I think, is going to be a very difficult game. Duke at home on Nov. 11 is tough. They have to go to Clemson on Nov. 18. And they’re at NC State on Nov. 25. NC State got them last year, and that’s a difficult place to go play. I do think at the end of the year this could ultimately take its toll. That’s a pretty brutal gauntlet between now and the end of the year.”
In addition to Florida State, McElroy also believes Louisville has a decent chance to go undefeated.
The Cardinals earned a big win over Notre Dame this past Saturday and have a fairly easy schedule the rest of the way.
“Louisville, who I actually think has a real possibility of being undefeated. … Here’s why I think it’s totally possible – they have four games at home,” McElroy said. “If there’s one thing we learned this past weekend, it’s that those four teams are in for a really hostile environment. They get Kentucky at home. They get Duke at home. They have to go to Miami, which is going to be a difficult spot. But the one thing we know about Miami, with all due respect to Miami, Miami’s home-field environment is really not great.”
It seems very unlikely that all three ACC teams will go undefeated, but in the scenario where they do, McElroy broke down the conference tiebreaker situation and how that would play out.
“Now the most likely tiebreaker scenario would be the combined winning percentage of conference opponents. And obviously there’s a ton of football left to be played. But that right now would have Florida State No. 1, North Carolina No. 2 and Louisville at No. 3. Now if for whatever reason those winning percentages are all deadlocked across the board, now that’s highly unlikely, but in the event it is, it falls to this – ‘A draw as administered by the commissioner or the commissioner’s designee,'” McElroy explained.
“Think about the discomfort there would be at Florida State if it comes down to the commissioner’s office given what Florida State has said about their current membership in the ACC. Those are your chaos scenarios.”