Joel Klatt claims the College Football Playoff selection committee 'hates the ACC'

As of Tuesday’s initial rankings for the College Football Playoff, only one ACC team would currently be in the bracket. That’s how Joel Klatt expects it to stay, too, based on what the committee said this week about the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The state of the ACC was one of Klatt’s takeaways on his show the morning after the release of this season’s first rankings by the CFP Selection Committee. He called it as he saw it about the ACC in stating, based on their ratings this week, that there’s no chance for us to see a multi-bid effort this fall by the ACC.

“I know what I said I was going to say here, but I was like, ‘Am I really going to say that?’ – I think the committee hates the ACC,” Klatt said. “They’re not getting two bids. These teams are not getting propped up over the teams ahead of them…There’s almost no way that they’re getting a team all the way up to be champion and a second team in a position to go to that game, lose, and still go to the playoff. I just don’t see it. I don’t see it at all.”

On Tuesday night, the ACC saw rankings for No. 14 Virginia (8-1), No. 15 Louisville (7-1), No. 17 Georgia Tech (8-1), No. 18 Miami (6-2), and No. 25 Pittsburgh (7-2) in the CFP Top 25. Having five in the rankings overall is pretty good, as it was the second-most behind only the SEC (9) and the Big Ten (7). However, with where they actually slotted in, the Atlantic Coast Conference was the only portion of the projected bracket to not have more than one team in, behind the SEC (4), Big Ten (3), Big 12 (2), and the Group of Five plus an independent in Notre Dame (2).

With that, Klatt also doesn’t see much movement possible for those five teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference. For one, each of them has games left in which they could, or will, lose. For two, they don’t control their own destinies, considering the paths for No. 11 Texas, No. 12 Oklahoma, and No. 13 Utah, who are specifically the teams just ahead of them, yet are still out of the field themselves, in the rankings of the CFP. And, for three, there’s no guaranteeing that other teams won’t start to pass them anyway, with Klatt’s focus being on the Big Ten with No. 19 USC, No. 20 Iowa, No. 21 Michigan, and No. 23 Washington, over November.

“In particular, when you’re looking at this and, if you’re watching on YouTube, you see those teams at 11 to 13? They’re not passing those teams,” Klatt said. ” Utah does not have a very difficult stretch down the rest of their season. OU still has tough games ahead of them, so they could be 2-1 in the last three, go 9-3 and they’re staying above those ACC teams. Texas, the same thing. Notre Dame has an easy slate to end this season; they’re 10-2 at that point and they’re not getting passed by an ACC team. BYU? Let’s just say, based on the odds, that they lose to Texas Tech. They’re not falling behind these ACC teams. They’re just not.”