A 24-team playoff would have taken four ACC teams last season, including Miami and Duke

The College Football Playoff is nearing a deal to double its field to 24 teams starting in 2027, and early mock brackets built from last season suggest the ACC would get far more room than it has now. ESPN took the committee's final 2025 ranking, run after the conference title games, and placed four ACC teams in the field: No. 10 Miami, No. 19 Virginia, No. 22 Georgia Tech and No. 24 Duke, which got in as the league champion.

Under the plan ESPN reported, the top eight seeds would get byes and seeds 9 through 24 would play first-round games. The Power Four champions and the best Group of Six champion would get automatic bids, and the Power Four title games are expected to go away. In ESPN's mock, Miami hosts Iowa for the right to face Texas A&M, Virginia goes to Vanderbilt with Georgia waiting, Georgia Tech travels to Notre Dame, and Duke opens at Alabama.

CBS Sports took a different route. Robby Kalland used the rankings from before championship weekend, which better fits a format with no title games. His ACC picture changes: Miami is the 12th seed against Houston with Oregon next, Virginia is 17th against USC, Georgia Tech is 22nd against BYU, and Duke is out. Kalland noted that Miami's real path would grow by one game, "adding another layer of difficulty" for any team seeded outside the top eight.

The gap between the two versions shows what is at stake for the league. Duke made ESPN's bracket by winning the ACC title game. Without that game, the champion would be decided by tiebreakers, and in a league this large many contenders never play each other. With 24 spots, a two-loss team and even a three-loss team stays in the race into November.

What it means for Saturday

That matters for all four ACC teams from those mocks, since all of them play on October 17. Miami is 5-0 after a 41-13 win at Clemson and is favored by 21.5 points over Florida State at Novig, where the Hurricanes are -1329 on the moneyline. Fanatics has Miami at -21. Florida State is +1150 at Novig and +1200 at its best price elsewhere. Full prices are on the game page.

Virginia is 4-2 after edging Syracuse 28-25 and goes to No. 24 SMU, a ranked road game that counts for more in a 24-team field. SMU is favored by 9.5 at Novig and at -317 on the moneyline, with Virginia at +300. The best SMU spread anywhere is -9 at BetRivers (odds).

Georgia Tech is 2-3 but beat Duke 28-25 last week. Virginia Tech is favored by 9.5, and Georgia Tech is +326 at Novig. FanDuel moves the Yellow Jackets to +10.5 at -114 (odds). Duke is 4-1 and hosts North Carolina as a 2.5-point favorite at Novig, at -141 on the moneyline. Hard Rock has the Tar Heels at +3.5 (odds).

On all four boards, the sportsbooks' spreads and totals sit within about a point of Novig's. Their spread holds run from 4 to 7 percent.