Duke wins ACC championship, sets off chaos in CFP

The nuclear option for both the ACC and the College Football Playoff has happened. With their 27-20 overtime win against the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday night, the Duke Blue Devils have won the ACC championship, and in the process may have completely shut the conference out of the 12-team playoff. 

Duke win sets off chaotic series of events

The most important development here is what this means for the automatic qualifiers to the playoff.

There is almost no way a five-loss Duke team is going to be ranked, or ranked high enough, to earn a spot. Duke was not ranked coming into championship weekend; it was never a serious part of the discussion, and there is virtually no chance it is going to jump over No. 25 James Madison or even Mountain West champion Boise State. Not with five losses. 

The top-five ranked conference champions earn an automatic ticket into the playoff, and Indiana, Georgia and Texas Tech have the top-three of those spots from the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 easily wrapped up.

Tulane is also going to get in following its AAC win on Friday night. 

Had Virginia won on Saturday, it would have made it as likely the fourth-highest ranked conference champion between Texas Tech and Tulane. 

But despite a valiant late fourth quarter comeback to erase a 10-point deficit with four minutes to play, the Cavaliers still came up short in overtime when they could not stop Duke and were then intercepted on a trick play on its first overtime snap.