CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia Cavaliers beat the California Golden Bears Saturday on the way to their seventh straight win. This gives them eight wins this year, and for the first time since 2019, the Cavaliers are going to a bowl game. Virginia has had some very close calls with three games going to overtime, and with only three games left, they have no ranked opponents and only one away game. The Cavaliers have the best positioning in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) after their win to get through to the title game in December. The 31-21 win for Virginia was not at all easy. Virginia was only winning 24-21 with less than a minute left in the game, but as they have all year, Virginia found a way to pull out the win. 

The ACC title race has begun to heat up in ways few would have guessed at the start of the season. #8 Georgia Tech lost to NC State this week, #10 Miami went to Dallas and got beaten by an SMU team looking for blood, and Duke went to Clemson and beat them 46-45. So with this turbulent week for top ACC teams, Virginia took the lead in the conference. There are now four ACC teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25, all in the top 20: Virginia at 12, Louisville at 14, Georgia Tech at 16, and Miami dropped from 10 to 18. With Georgia Tech no longer being undefeated, their at-large playoff hopes are slim at best.

This weekend will bring a slate of games to the conference that are not as big as last week, but upsets can arise from anywhere. Virginia will host the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who are 5-3 and looking for bowl eligibility Saturday at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN. Syracuse plays Miami at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN and California heads to Louisville to take on the Cardinals on ESPN2 at 7:00 p.m. Saturday.

In a different part of the College Football world, James Madison has a good shot at making it to the playoffs this year. With one loss to the #14 ranked Louisville Cardinals. There will likely only be one “Group of Five” team making the playoffs this year and the American Conference, like last year, has the inside track. With Navy’s loss to North Texas this week, the American Conference now only has Memphis as a ranked team. This is good news for the JMU Dukes, who need a conference championship and losses from as many American teams as possible. As for the Dukes season itself, they are 7-1 and first in the Sun Belt East, with four games remaining. If the Dukes win out, they could make it to the playoffs, making them the first non-American Conference team to make the playoffs. James Madison went down to Texas State and won 52-20. “JMU has a great team and coaching staff this year,” Davis Bert, an Eastern Mennonite University first-year who is with JMU’s marching band, remarked in an email interview. “It has been an entertaining season, but that is also because they always struggle to get plays going during the first half. JMU is the definition of a second-half team.” Bert’s sentiment has definitely been true; the team often takes their time to show up. That might not help them in the long term, but in a season of twists and turns that no one expects, no team is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. JMU and Virginia can certainly get their spots if they keep winning.