The ACC has a real path to more teams in the College Football Playoff than the SEC

If you had the ability to travel back in time to start of this season and tell a college football fan that the ACC would have a chance to have more bids to the College Football Playoff than the SEC, what do you think they would tell you?

The SEC, which has long been considered the best league in college football, is on the cusp of a very disappointing season in terms of expectations for the College Football Playoff. While some argue that the conference has "cannibalized" itself, you can make the very real argument that there just aren't many elite teams in the SEC this year.

With Alabama, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss all dropping their third loss, there are only three teams in the current 12-team College Football Playoff field from the SEC:

• (3) Texas
• (7) Georgia
• (8) Tennessee

While all three of these teams control their own destiny, they face very real challenges this coming weekend.

Texas, with a 10-1 record, is likely in the field regardless of what happens the rest of the way. Georgia, 9-2, is also likely solidified as a playoff team, unless they somehow lose to Georgia Tech on Friday. Even then, the Bulldogs would just need to win the SEC Championship to get an automatic berth, and there would still be plenty of discussion for an at-large bid if they lost the SEC Championship.

But, Tennessee with a 9-2 record and no path to the SEC Championship is a little bit of a different story.

The Vols could lock up a home playoff game this weekend with a win over Vanderbilt on the road, but what if the unthinkable happened and they lost in Nashville, as we've already seen happen to a couple of teams this year?

Tennessee, with three losses, would join the jumbled mess of SEC teams with three losses, all ranked behind a two-loss ACC team in Clemson. If Clemson were to win its game against No. 16-ranked South Carolina, the Tigers would take the Vols' at-large spot and the SEC would be sitting on the outside-looking-in with only two teams in the field, assuming something crazy doesn't happen with Texas A&M.

There's always a thought that Tennessee or Alabama could jump the ACC Championship loser, but the committee would set a bad precedent if that were to happen, especially since that would mean jumping an SEC team — like Tennessee or Alabama — over an ACC runner-up in Miami or SMU, who would only have two losses.

It seems more likely, as a matter of fact, that the ACC Championship loser would get the final at-large bid and the conference would sneak a third bid into the playoff, ahead of the SEC's two.

It's not likely to happen, but it absolutely is possible. Who had that on their 2024 college football season bingo card heading into the year?

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