The ACC may make changes to their conference championship game

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said Sunday that he will have conversations with coaches and athletic directors about potential changes the conference could make to its conference championship format. With the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff guaranteeing each Power Four conference champion a bid to the playoff, the changes Phillips will discuss could ensure the ACC a higher chance of being a two-bid league.

This season, SMU lost in the championship game to Clemson, who automatically made the playoff, and the Mustangs had to sweat it out on Selection Sunday to see if they would make it or not. To avoid this, Phillips said he is considering giving the regular season champion a bye and making the two and three-seeds play in the championship game.

Interesting idea ACC commish Jim Phillips brought up with a few of us: crown regular season conference champ and reward them w/ CFP AQ. On “championship” weekend pit second and third place teams for a spot in the CFP.

That would’ve meant: SMU (champ)

Miami vs. Clemson (play-in)
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) January 19, 2025

Another possibility Phillips brought up was having the top four teams play in a mini tournament. 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 during the final week of the regular season and the winners play during championship weekend. This would ensure the loser of the championship game gets an additional win over one of the top four teams in the conference, boosting their resumé ahead of the final CFP rankings.

This comes after SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee made comments prior to the ACC Championship game about how not playing would be more beneficial for the team. Phillips said he will have conversations with league head coaches to get feedback on either of the two plans. These will occur during the conference's winter meetings in Charlotte next month.

"The conference championship games are important, as long as we make them important, right?" Phillips said. "Do you play two versus three? You go through the regular season and whoever wins the regular season, just park them to the side, and then you play the second-place team versus the third-place team in your championship game. So you have a regular-season champion, and then you have a conference tournament or postseason champion."

If the ACC makes this change, other conferences could follow, specifically the Big 12. Both the Big 12 and ACC got a total of three teams into this year's playoff, and changes to the how they conduct their conference championships could secure additional bids.