Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Malachi Toney (10) is hit on a pass reception by Southern Methodist University Mustangs safety Ahmaad Moses (3) during the first half of an NCAA football game at Gerald Ford Stadium on Saturday, November 1, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.
adiaz@miamiherald.com
DALLAS
The No. 10 Miami Hurricanes’ path to the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game on Dec. 6 in Charlotte, which was already on somewhat shaky ground, took another hit after a 26-20 overtime loss to the SMU Mustangs on Saturday.
But they’re not completely out of it — not yet, at least.
As conference play continues, here is a look at the current ACC landscape, including full standings for the 17-team league, each team’s remaining schedule and what it would take for Miami to get to the conference title game for just the second time and first time since 2017.
ACC game results this week
NC State 48, No. 8 Georgia Tech 36
SMU 26, No. 10 Miami 20 (OT)
No. 12 Notre Dame 25, Boston College 10
No. 15 Virginia 31, California 21
No. 18 Louisville 28, Virginia Tech 16
Duke 46, Clemson 45
Pittsburgh 35, Stanford 20
Florida State 42, Wake Forest 7
North Carolina 27, Syracuse 10
ACC standings after Week 10
Virginia: 8-1, 5-0 ACC
Georgia Tech: 8-1, 5-1 ACC
Pittsburgh: 7-2, 5-1 ACC
Louisville: 7-1, 4-1 ACC
SMU: 6-3, 4-1 ACC
Duke: 5-3, 4-1 ACC
Miami: 6-2, 2-2 ACC
N.C. State: 5-4, 2-3 ACC
California: 5-4, 2-3 ACC
Wake Forest: 5-3, 2-3 ACC
Virginia Tech: 3-6, 2-3 ACC
Clemson: 3-5, 2-4 ACC
Stanford: 3-6, 2-4 ACC
North Carolina: 3-5, 1-3 ACC
Florida State: 4-4, 1-4 ACC
Syracuse: 3-6, 1-5 ACC
Boston College: 1-8, 0-5 ACC
Remaining ACC schedules
Virginia: vs. Wake Forest, at Duke, vs. Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech: at Boston College, vs. Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh: at Georgia Tech, vs. Miami
Louisville: vs. California, vs. Clemson, at SMU
SMU: at Boston College, vs. Louisville, at California
Duke: vs. Virginia, at North Carolina, vs. Wake Forest
Miami: vs. Syracuse, vs. N.C. State, at Virginia Tech, at Pittsburgh
N.C. State: at Miami, vs. Florida State, vs. North Carolina
California: at Louisville, at Stanford, vs. SMU
Wake Forest: at Virginia, vs. North Carolina, at Duke
Virginia Tech: at Florida State, vs. Miami, at Virginia
Clemson: vs. Florida State, at Louisville
Stanford: at North Carolina, vs. California
North Carolina: vs. Stanford, at Wake Forest, vs. Duke, at N.C. State
Florida State: at Clemson, vs. Virginia Tech, at N.C. State
Syracuse: at Miami, vs. Boston College
Boston College: vs. SMU, vs. Georgia Tech, at Syracuse
The Miami Hurricanes’ path to the ACC Championship Game
After Georgia Tech’s loss to NC State, there’s only one team left that is undefeated in ACC play — and that’s the Virginia Cavaliers, as everyone expected entering the season, right?
Five more teams — Georgia Tech, Louisville, Duke, SMU and Pittsburgh — have one league loss.
Miami has two losses in ACC play. The remaining 10 teams all have at least three defeats in league play.
So while unlikely at this point, the Hurricanes feasibly can still reach the conference title game.
What needs to happen?
To start, UM needs to run the table and finish 6-2 in conference play. Doing so would hand Pittsburgh, the only team ahead of the Hurricanes in the standings that Miami still has on its schedule, a loss.
From there, Miami needs a lot of breaks to go its way.
There are three more games the rest of the way that are head-to-heads between the six teams with either zero or one league loss: Virginia at Duke on Nov. 15, Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech on Nov. 22 and Louisville at SMU on Nov. 22. This ensures that, at maximum, four teams could finish league play with no fewer than one loss — the winner of the Pitt-Georgia Tech game, the winner of the Louisville-SMU game and both Virginia and Duke (if Duke wins that game).
So even from there, Miami would need as many as three teams to have an additional ACC loss at some point in November to give the Hurricanes a chance to be in contention for the conference title game (and that’s before trying to sort out the potential tiebreaker scenarios).
The problem? All six of those teams have either two or three total conference games left on their schedule, so the chances for those upsets to take place are minimal.
So all in all, while not impossible, it’s not looking great for the Hurricanes.
This story was originally published November 1, 2025 at 11:01 PM.
Jordan McPherson
Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.
