By Owain Jones

There is just one week to go in the 2025 college football regular season, and it is still all to play for at the top of the ACC. With Championship Game chaos, coaching drama, and potential playoff hopes, here is your ACC college football roundup after Week 13.

ACC Championship Game: Georgia Tech's Collapse Opens the Door

Pittsburgh’s 42-28 demolition of Georgia Tech last Saturday cracked open the championship race, transforming what seemed like a clear path to Charlotte into absolute chaos. Virginia now controls its own destiny with a straightforward mandate: clinch a spot in the ACC championship game with a victory against Virginia Tech in Week 14.

The Cavaliers face their in-state rivals on Friday, knowing that a victory over the Hokies will send them to their first ACC Championship Game since 2011. Virginia hasn’t won an ACC championship since 1995, when they shared the title with Florida State in the pre-championship game era, but heads to Blacksburg knowing a victory over their rivals will send them to Charlotte.

SMU needs to beat Cal to secure their spot, making Saturday’s clash with a reeling Golden Bears squad (fresh off firing head coach Justin Wilcox) a potential coronation for the Mustangs.

Rhett Lashlee’s team also knows that, in the event of a three-way tie with Virginia and Pitt, SMU would reach the ACC championship game by virtue of a 2-0 record against common opponents, giving the Mustangs the edge on the Panthers, who lost to Louisville.

Pittsburgh needs help, but they proved they belong in the conversation with their throttling of Georgia Tech. Pitt needs to beat Miami and requires either Virginia to lose against Virginia Tech or SMU to lose against Cal to clinch a spot.

The maths favor Virginia and SMU, but Pittsburgh has shown they can beat anyone when firing on all cylinders. They face Miami in Week 14, a game that has massive consequences for both sides.

Miami's Playoff Nightmare

In the fourth College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night, Miami sits at No. 12 (and No. 14 in the UK & Ireland College Football Rankings), making them the highest-ranked ACC program. Yet their chances of actually making the ACC Championship Game are next to zero, as the Hurricanes already have two losses in conference play.

The 12-team playoff structure awards automatic berths to the four highest-ranked conference champions, plus a guaranteed spot for the top-ranked Group of Five champion. This leaves just seven at-large positions for everyone else, and Miami’s path to claiming one of those spots looks increasingly treacherous.

Miami sits precariously on the bubble. Ahead of them sit multiple two-loss teams from the SEC and Big Ten, conferences that the committee has consistently favored. The Hurricanes will need at least one of these to slip in the rankings to make the Playoff. 

That is because it is expected that both the ACC Champion and the Group of Five Champion will be ranked lower than Mario Cristobal’s team, meaning they will need to slot in ahead of the South Florida-based side.

However, there has been increasing discussion about Notre Dame. Miami beat the Fighting Irish 27-24 on August 31, yet the committee has been consistent in ranking them ahead of the Hurricanes.

Although Miami is the highest-ranked ACC team in the eyes of the selection committee, plenty must break the Hurricanes’ way. Suppose Miami defeats Pitt in the regular season finale and finishes 10-2. In that case, they’ll likely need at least two of BYU (No. 11), Utah (No. 13), or Vanderbilt (No. 14) to lose, Alabama (No. 10) to lose the Iron Bowl, and Notre Dame to stumble at USC.

Cal Press the Reset Button

California fired coach Justin Wilcox on Sunday after nine seasons leading the program, with the school owing Wilcox $10,879,167 in buyout money. The decision arrived one day after the Golden Bears suffered an embarrassing 31-10 defeat to archrival Stanford.

Wilcox compiled a 52-64 record across nine seasons, never winning more than eight games. Under his tenure, Cal went 0-3 against Stanford in their final three meetings, with losses by margins of 21, 27, and 21 points, an unacceptable record in a rivalry considered sacred.

Cal had stagnated, rather than imploded, but the athletics departments decided to pull the trigger now despite the substantial buyout.

Ron Rivera now leads the hunt for a replacement. Read our full analysis of Cal’s top replacement candidates, including Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi, San Diego State head coach Sean Lewis, and internal option Bryan Harsin.

Mike Norvell Survives Despite Historic Failure

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Florida State football coach Mike Norvell, who is 7-16 (3-13 in ACC play) over the past two seasons, will return for a seventh year with the Seminoles, the school announced Sunday. Many fans and analysts expected the athletics department to move on from the head coach, but instead, he survives… for now.

Had Florida State moved on from Norvell, the school would have owed him about $54 million in buyout money, with total obligations including staff salaries reaching approximately $72 million, a significant figure even for a program the size of Florida State.

This season has been a continuation of last year’s troubles, as Norvell’s squad went 2-10 in 2024, the Seminoles’ worst mark since 1974. At 5-6 overall and 2-6 in ACC play this season, Florida State has been winless on the road over the past two years. The Seminoles haven’t won a true road game since defeating Pittsburgh 24-7 on November 4, 2023.

It begs the question, what has caused the collapse? Norvell admitted the College Football Playoff snub in 2023 had a much more profound impact on his program than he initially realized. That controversial exclusion shattered team morale. Key contributors transferred, recruiting suffered, and the program spiraled. 

However, there is a belief that the program can build momentum for next season with a young core of players set to return. But their 2026 recruiting class has been mediocre, and there is no doubt that something needs to change in Tallahassee.

Georgia Tech's Heartbreak

Georgia Tech was within one win of making it to the ACC Championship Game. Still, after losing to Pitt on Saturday, the Yellow Jackets have fallen to No. 23 in the College Football Playoff rankings and No. 20 in the UK & Ireland College Football Rankings. The Panthers defeated Tech 42-28 to effectively end their hopes of an ACC Championship and a Playoff berth.

Georgia Tech fell behind 28-0 early in the first quarter before mounting a furious comeback attempt that ultimately fell short. The Panthers limited the Yellow Jackets on the ground and forced Haynes King to throw the ball in bad situations under intense pressure.

The key play came in the third quarter, with Tech lined up for third-and-goal from the Pitt 5-yard line and trailing 28-14, linebacker Braylan Lovelace intercepted Haynes King’s pass at the goal line and returned it 99 yards for a touchdown. That 14-point swing crushed the hopes of the Yellow Jackets, with the points difference proving insurmountable.

It means that Georgis Tech’s hopes have evaporated late into the season. With Georgia now on the dock in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the rivalry game, there is still pride to play for.

OWAIN JONES

college football & NFL DRAFT ANALYST

OWAIN jones COVERS EVERYTHING college football & NFL DRAFT. COMING WITH PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE, OWAIN was PREVIOUSLY a writer for pfsn and WAS THE NFL DRAFT EDITOR AT NINETY-NINE YARDS WHERE HE CREATED DRAFT TALK, YOU CAN FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @OwainJonesCFB

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