Duke beats Virginia: How ACC Championship result impacts College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff was thrown into more chaos Saturday evening after Duke defeated Virginia to win the ACC Championship. The Blue Devils won 27-20 in overtime but were not even ranked in the penultimate CFP rankings, and almost certainly won’t make the CFP even as a conference champion.

Per the official rules of the College Football Playoff, the five highest-ranked conference champions make the field. Being from a Power 4 conference does not guarantee a spot if the conference champion from that league is below a Group of 5 school.

That seems to be the likely case for Duke, as James Madison snuck into the latest College Football Playoff rankings at No. 25 on Tuesday. JMU defeated Troy on Friday to win the Sun Belt Conference Championship. They, along with No. 20 Tulane are the favorites to secure the final two automatic bids.

Despite winning the ACC Championship, Duke has less than a 1 percent chance of making the 12-team CFP according to ESPN. The real question is whether the ACC will get any teams in the College Football Playoff at all.

The only team with any hope of an at-large big at this point is Miami, which was No. 12 in the penultimate rankings. However, two teams ahead of the Hurricanes, Alabama and BYU, lost in their respective conference championship games. That has caused some speculation about whether Miami could jump both and get in the field.

We won’t have to wait long to see the final rankings, as they are set to be released at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday. But the ACC Championship result has certainly made the College Football Playoff rankings reveal a lot more interesting.

How it happened: Duke wins ACC

Duke opened the contest with a 15-play touchdown drive that culminated with a 12-yard pass from Darian Mensah to Jeremiah Hasley. But things would remain neck-and-neck down the to final seconds.

Virginia answered in the second quarter with a touchdown from Chandler Morris to J’Mari Taylor to even the game at 7. Duke answered on the very next drive with a 16-yard touchdown run from Nate Sheppard to go up 14-7, the score it led by heading into halftime.

Both teams tacked on two more field goals in the second half, making it a 20-13 game with less than five minutes to play. The Blue Devils got the ball with 3:54 to play and got to work melting some time off the clock. They were able to one first down but ultimately punted it away with 1:44 remaining to give Virginia one last shot.

The Cavaliers took over at their own 4-yard line and drove 96 yards downfield to score and tie the game with 22 seconds remaining on an 18-yard touchdown to Eli Wood. Duke took a knee on the next play to send it into overtime.

Duke got down to the one-yard line on its first possession in overtime before facing a fourth down. The Blue Devils threw in a touchdown pass to Hasley and Mensah was hit late for a roughing the passer penalty that was enforced on the overtime possession, making Virginia start from the 40-yard line.

One the very first play, Duke forced an interception as the Cavaliers took a shot. That ended the game and secured their ACC Championship victory.