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Saturday Edition

December 6, 2025

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With conference championships underway, tensions are running high in college football. The ACC is on the brink of losing out on a potential $116 million, and Miami and Texas are none too happy with their national rankings (for now).

— David Rumsey [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

ACC Braces for Possible CFP Shutout and Loss of $116M in Payouts [[link removed]]

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Last year, Notre Dame made $20 million [[link removed]] from the College Football Playoff. This year, the entire ACC could end up with its pockets empty.

That’s because the ACC is in grave danger of not placing a single team [[link removed]] in this season’s 12-team Playoff bracket. If unranked Duke upsets No. 17 Virginia on Saturday night in the ACC championship game, it’s highly likely that not a single team from the Power 4 conference will make the CFP, and that two Group of 6 teams will.

At stake is at least $116 million in performance-based CFP revenue distribution that the ACC would have no chance at earning.

Conferences (or the individual school in the case of independent Notre Dame) will receive $4 million for each team that ultimately makes the CFP, with further payouts each round:

Qualifying for the CFP: $4 million (12 teams) Advancing to the quarterfinals: $4 million (8 teams) Advancing to the semifinals: $6 million (4 teams) Advancing to the national championship game: $6 million (2 teams)

There is no extra monetary prize for winning the CFP, but each team will receive $3 million to cover expenses for each round.

New this year is a slight shift tied to the CFP’s move to straight seeding: While the four highest-ranked conference champions no longer receive top seeds and first-round byes, they will still earn a guaranteed $8 million [[link removed]] for their respective leagues even if they lose their first-round matchup.

If Virginia beats Duke, it will be in line to earn that automatic $8 million payment for the ACC as the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion. If Duke wins, though, the American Conference will be set for the guaranteed $8 million payday with No. 20 Tulane, who beat No. 24 North Texas in Friday’s title game, becoming the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion.

The Sun Belt Conference is the second Group of 6 league hoping for a Virginia loss, which would send No. 25 James Madison, which beat Troy in Friday’s title game, to the CFP.

Beyond the conference championship chaos, there is still a small chance the CFP selection committee could decide to move No. 12 Miami (the ACC’s highest-ranked team) up high enough in Sunday’s final rankings to give them an at-large bid.

A Power 4 conference missing out entirely on the CFP, and two Group of 6 conference champions making it, is not a development that was ever the intention for the expanded, 12-team format.

It had been assumed that the Power 4 conference champions would at least be among the five highest-ranked league winners, if not almost always the top four. But last year, the Mountain West’s Boise State was the third-highest-ranked conference champion. The ACC still got two bids, though, in conference winner Clemson and at-large selection SMU. Neither team won its first-round game, so the conference made $8 million in performance bonuses.

Next year, the CFP’s revenue-distribution structure is shifting away from performance bonuses. The SEC and Big Ten will earn 29% each, the ACC 17%, the Big 12 15%, and the Group of 6 conferences collectively 9%.

SPONSORED BY ALLY

Sue’s Second Act

Hosted by Chiney Ogwumike, the inaugural Second Acts Live, presented by Ally, featured WNBA legend Sue Bird reflecting on the experiences that shaped her extraordinary career. She spoke about overcoming a torn ACL as a freshman at UConn, winning two national championships, being selected first overall in the WNBA draft, and capturing four titles in Seattle over her 22-year career.

Together, we celebrated both her iconic playing years and the exciting second acts she’s now pursuing. In front of a highly engaged audience of 700 superfans in Seattle, Sue opened up about life beyond the court—sharing stories about her first paycheck and investment, her efforts to spotlight rising stars in women’s sports, and the things she’s most grateful for as she embraces her second professional chapter.

Presented by Ally, Second Acts Live offered an intimate look at what’s next for one of the game’s greats. Watch now [[link removed]].

Texas and Miami Are on the Outside Looking In at CFP Bids [[link removed]]

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This week’s release of the College Football Playoff rankings [[link removed]] heading into conference championship weekend has Miami at the No. 12 slot and Texas at No. 13. Both are on the outside looking in as two final slots will be claimed by lower-ranked conference champions, and neither the Hurricanes nor the Longhorns are playing for those titles.

Miami and Texas, however, believe they should be considered for at-large positions. The continued politicking for CFP positions again shows that even with an expanded, 12-team field for the CFP, the recriminations are just as strong as during the prior four-team era—if not more so.

In the Hurricanes’ case, they are a two-loss team that has defeated Notre Dame, another two-loss team standing at No. 10. The Longhorns have three losses, but two of those are to No. 1 Ohio State and No. 3 Georgia, and Texas also claims wins over two other top-10 teams and No. 14 Vanderbilt.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian went on an extended media tour this week to make his team’s CFP case, repeatedly highlighting the Longhorns’ unusually stacked schedule this year. It was to no avail.

“We’ve played the hardest schedule of all the remaining teams left in the CFP, and that’s supposed to be the No. 1 criteria, strength of schedule,” Sarkisian said. “The second [criteria] is supposed to be head-to-head competition. Well, there’s two teams [Oklahoma and Texas A&M] that are in there that we beat by multiple scores. So is that head-to-head competition or not?”

Fans Cry Bias

Fans of both Miami and Texas have also spent this week flooding social media and sports talk shows, complaining about a perceived bias toward the Southeastern Conference, which could place five teams in the field.

“No words. These ESPN/CFP invitational rankings are a joke,” tweeted Chuck Todd [[link removed]], former host of Meet the Press and a Miami-area native, referencing the Disney-owned outlet that will show the tournament and has a larger rights relationship with the SEC.

“The bias toward the SEC is the tell. Both [Oklahoma] and Bama should be below Miami and Notre Dame. But typical SEC bias. If Ole Miss were not in the SEC, I promise you this [committee] would have dropped them, too. It is what it is. I know Miami will be screwed again,” Todd wrote.

Miami’s candidacy is complicated by the Atlantic Coast Conference’s championship matchup [[link removed]] between Duke and Virginia, a messy situation that leaves out the Hurricanes, the conference’s highest-ranked team, out of the game—and could keep the ACC out of the CFP altogether if the unranked Blue Devils win. The Hurricanes lost out to Duke in a five-way tiebreaker to face Virginia for the ACC title.

This week has also featured sniping between Sarkisian and Miami head coach Mario Cristobal. On Monday, Sarkisian claimed the Hurricanes ran up the score in a 38–7 win over Pittsburgh in an attempt to sway the committee. That game featured a Miami touchdown with less than a minute remaining.

“Is the committee watching the games, or are they looking at a stat sheet at the end of the game to say, ‘Oh, well they won by this many points. They must’ve played really good,’” Sarkisian said on the SEC Network.

Cristobal pointed to the teams’ respective schedules in response. “That’s funny,” he told On3 [[link removed]]. “We had one common opponent. Florida dominated Texas 29–21, a team we beat convincingly, 26–7. That settles that debate.”

Both teams, however, are looking at lesser bowl games instead of the CFP to finish out their seasons.

Keeping Up With the CFB Coaching Carousel

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One week in this college football season has felt like a month in terms of the speed of coach firings and hirings [[link removed]]. Would you believe Penn State’s James Franklin firing [[link removed]] was already two months ago? LSU fired Brian Kelly [[link removed]] six weeks ago. After those and other firings, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin became the key player in an SEC game of musical chairs [[link removed]] that assembled around his choice of where to sit.

Finally on Sunday, Kiffin took his talents to LSU [[link removed]], complaining as he walked out the door about not getting a special exception [[link removed]] to keep coaching Ole Miss through the Playoff, and triggering a domino effect in his wake [[link removed]]. (A number of coaches, including Curt Cignetti at Indiana and Clark Lea at Vanderbilt, have also benefited from the madness [[link removed]] with fat extensions for staying put.) Florida [[link removed]], Penn State, UCLA, Oklahoma State [[link removed]], Kentucky, Tulane, and Virginia Tech are among the schools [[link removed]] that have found their new coaches. Now we can all move on to the next big spectacle: arguing over who makes it into the final College Football Playoff [[link removed]].

— Dan Roberts [[link removed]]

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Show [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Meredith Turits [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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