Will the ACC’s best team please stand up? In fact, if you’re out there, go ahead and give the College Football Playoff selection committee a nudge, too.

No. 14 Virginia and No. 15 Louisville – the league’s two torchbearers in the first College Football Playoff Rankings – lost on Saturday night to Wake Forest and Cal, respectively, sending the ACC Championship race into further disarray coming down the stretch.

No. 17 Georgia Tech was idle following its first loss of the season at NC State, while No. 18th Miami handled Syracuse after previously tumbling outside of the top 10 after its second setback in three weeks.

It was so disappointing for Louisville against Cal that a chorus of boos rained down from the Cardinals’ home fans at the end of regulation after a possession that started at midfield in the final seconds of the fourth quarter went nowhere. In overtime, Louisville was called for a chop block on its first possession that wiped away a first down and led to a field goal before Cal won it on fourth-and-goal with a touchdown pass from freshman QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele.

The metrics point to the league being a mixed bag at best this season, punctuated by a 5-4 Duke team – a 37-34 loser at UConn in Week 11 – still having a chance to reach the league title game with a couple wins the remainder of the month.

How’d we get here after Florida State opened with a win over Alabama and Clemson outlasted LSU to spike the early top 15 before the wheels came off for both?

The selection committee slotted three Big 12 teams ahead of the ACC’s first ranked team in this week’s initial poll and placed two-loss Notre Dame, who fell to Miami in the season opener, eight spots ahead of the Hurricanes despite having the same record.

It’s clear the selection committee is not fond of the ACC this season. And this should not be surprising.

There’s five automatic qualifiers in the 12-team playoff bracket – the five, highest-ranked conference champions based on the selection committee’s final top 25. Theoretically, if there’s a Group of Five team – or multiple squads – slotted higher than the ACC’s victor at season’s end, they would get in along with champions from the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12.

Virginia’s strength of schedule coming into Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest was 85th nationally, just behind Georgia Tech. Louisville’s slate was 56th and Miami’s was considered the best in the conference at No. 28. The Hurricanes also rank seventh in game control following their win over Syracuse, but they’re too far back of the current pack at No. 18 in the rankings.

By comparison, all seven SEC teams still in playoff contention rank 25th or better in strength of schedule and in the Big Ten, the strength of schedules average for the six teams expected to be ranked on Tuesday is 35.1.

Say what you want, but who you play matters and strength of schedule is supposed to matter more this season than it ever has in the eyes of the selection committee.

The argument’s easy for another addition from the SEC or Big Ten taking the ACC’s perceived one-bid lock, but SOS is a dilemma for those in the Group of Five. There’s currently six teams vying for the Group of Five’s playoff auto-bid – North Texas, Navy, USF, Tulane, James Madison and San Diego State.

None of these teams were ranked by the selection committee in the first poll, but one could justify a 12-win, Sun Belt champion JMU or a 12-win, Mountain West champion San Diego State as a better option than what the ACC could end up with at the podium in Charlotte the first weekend of December.

JMU would be riding an 11-game winning streak with its only loss coming at Louisville in Week 2, while San Diego State would also have a comparable streak, including victories over five bowl-bound opponents if the Aztecs win out.

Top of ACC standings after Week 11

Virginia has three overtime wins this season over Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina. And that’s part of what apparently made the resume stand out above others in the conference to the selection committee last week.

“Look, if you win, it’s a positive. Wins matter. And if you lose, we evaluate what type of loss that is,” selection committee chair Mack Rhoades said last week. “Again, Virginia, that’s a great overtime win, when you talk about going on the road and beating a quality – a really well-coached Louisville team. Virginia is a really good football team. Coach Scott has done a great job. Again, they’ve got more games to play.”

Georgia Tech could close the book on any noise concerning the ACC being deserving of a bid or not to its champion if the Yellow Jackets run the table. That would include victories over two ranked teams in Pitt and Georgia, and likely another top-25 team in the league title game.

If Brent Key’s team gets through that gauntlet, they’re going to be in the bracket and perhaps even receive a first-round home game. What’s more likely is more unpredictability in the conference through the end of the month with perceived favorites going down and there being a multi-team tie at the top with multiple losses going into the final weekend of the campaign.