College Football Conference Championships Part 2. Ok lets break down three more conference title games to be played on Saturday.
ACC #23 North Carolina vs. #9 Clemson, Saturday 8pm ABC
Both North Carolina and Clemson are stumbling into the ACC title game. The Tar Heels have lost their last two games while the Tigers were defeated by South Carolina this past Saturday. That snapped their 40-game home win streak which was the longest in ACC history.
Dabo Swinney has won seven conference championship games. That ties him with Bob Stoops for the 2nd-most by any head coach trailing only Nick Saban, who has won 10 conference championship games. In addition, all seven of Swinney’s conference titles have come in the last 7 seasons. Just one shy of matching Saban for the longest streak by a head coach all-time.
The Tar Heels are looking to win 10 games in a season for the first time since 2015 and the first time under Mack Brown since 1997. For Brown, this would be the 13th time in his head coaching career he won 10+ games in a season.
This marks the first time both team’s entered the ACC title game off a loss since 2012, when both Florida State and Georgia Tech entered off losses.
AAC #22 UCF vs. #18 Tulane 4pm ABC
This game will likely determine the Group of 5 representative in the Cotton Bowl as that goes to the highest ranked projected Group of 5 conference champion.
For the first time, Tulane will compete in a conference championship game, taking on UCF. UCF defeated Tulane 38-31 in their regular season meeting on November 12.
This past weekend, the Green Wave snapped a 61-game on-field losing streak vs AP-ranked opponents when taking down Cincinnati. That was the longest such losing streak in the Poll Era (since 1936).
After losing 10 games last season, Tulane has won 10 games this season. That marks its first 10-win season since 1998 when the Green Wave were in Conference USA. Tulane is also the first FBS school to lose 10 games in a season and then win 10 in the following season since Navy in 2018-19.
Tulane will look to slow down John Rhys Plumlee, who is one of two players with 2,000 passing yards and 800 rushing yards this season, along with LSU’s Jayden Daniels. Craig Shemon would disapprove of this game because it is a rematch. Sorry Craig.
College Football Conference Championships: Pete’s favorite conference, The MAC
