Yellow Jackets eliminated from ACC championship game

The Jackets had an outside shot at getting there, but needed multiple results on Friday and Saturday to break their way.

Georgia Tech could have reached the ACC championship game with a win over Pitt on Nov. 22, but if some ACC teams had lost their final matchups, the Yellow Jackets had an outside shot. A Duke win on Saturday closed down Georgia Tech's last remaining path. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

By Chad Bishop

1 hour ago

The odds were long to start the day, and by 7 p.m. Saturday, Georgia Tech had officially been eliminated from making the ACC championship game.

The Yellow Jackets (9-3, 6-2 ACC) needed a multitude of scenarios to go their way around conference play Saturday, but Duke’s 49-32 victory over Wake Forest officially ended Tech’s chances of making the league’s title game scheduled for Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Tech could have clinched a spot in the championship game by beating Pittsburgh on Nov. 22 at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Instead, it fell behind 28-0 and eventually lost 42-28.

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The Jackets were still mathematically alive in the race to be one of two teams to play for the league title going into Saturday. According to the ACC, Tech needed:

Pittsburgh to win, Virginia to lose and Southern Methodist to lose OR
Miami to win, SMU to lose, Duke to lose, Virginia to lose and North Carolina State to win.

There were other scenarios after those two, but after Miami beat Pitt 38-7 in Pittsburgh early Saturday, Tech needed Wake Forest to win at Duke. But the Blue Devils won in Durham, North Carolina.

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The ACC title game matchup had still not been decided as of early Saturday evening. Virginia (at Virginia Tech) and SMU (at California) both had the simplest path by winning their respective late games Saturday.

Tech will now have the weekend off and Sunday will learn its bowl game destination.

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