The Duke football program secured its first ACC Championship victory since 1989 with a 27-20 overtime victory over Virginia, but the Blue Devils' presence in the conference title game alone sparked major controversy. Duke finished the regular season leading up to the ACC Championship with a 7-5 record, but qualified for the game due to the ACC's tiebreaker rules that came into play following a five-way tie for second place in the ACC standings at the end of the campaign. 10-2 Miami and 9-3 Georgia Tech, which were ranked No. 10 and No. 22, respectively, in the final College Football Playoff standings, were left out. Even after winning the ACC crown, Duke was left out of the CFP due to its 8-5 record, and Miami earned an at-large bid.
After Miami made the Playoff over Notre Dame, it sparked major controversy from the Fighting Irish program. Now, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips is reportedly looking into changes to the conference's tiebreaker rules. The Blue Devils ultimately qualified for the ACC Championship because their eight ACC opponents combined for the best winning percentage. After SMU shockingly fell to Cal in its final regular season game, Duke leapfrogged the Mustangs to take the final spot with UVA.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips reportedly looking into changing tiebreaker rules after 7-5 Duke won conference crown
ACC teams played an eight-game conference slate this season, only facing half of a potential 16 opponents. Behind UVA at 7-1, five squads finished with 6-2 conference records, and another five finished with 4–4 records. Since there were few opportunities for head-to-head tiebreakers to be utilized, the ACC had to move deeper into its tiebreaker rules. The only team Duke faced head-to-head that was tied with the Blue Devils in the conference standings was Georgia Tech.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says his conference will re-examine its tiebreaker procedure for its football championship game.
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) December 10, 2025
The ACC is moving to a nine-game conference schedule next season, but that still leaves a lot of head-to-head matchups on the table, likely causing the conference to need to go deeper into its tiebreaker rules once again.
Now, Duke proved it deserved to be in the ACC Championship by winning the game. Should Duke be apologetic at all for how it got there? Absolutely not. However, after a 10-2 team, which is now in the College Football Playoff, got left out of its conference title game for a 7-5 team with no previous ranked wins, a fan with no bias to Duke could understandably see some issues.
Phillips didn't announce any confirmed changes, but the ACC is at least looking into it.