SMU-Louisville offers plausible ACC title game juice: Why winner has inside track to play Miami for CFP berth

It's only Week 3 with a limited sample size, but the ACC Championship race is already materializing for the challengers behind Miami at the top of the conference.

And we're of the belief the league could put two teams in the College Football Playoff this season for the second time in three years.

The CFP selection committee will shift its early-season attention to Saturday's 16th-ranked SMU at No. 23 Louisville showdown, a matchup that provides an early pathway to a league championship game appearance for the winner.

Both nationally ranked squads are dangerous offensively with play-making quarterbacks and each has a favorably slate the rest of the way — Louisville doesn't play another opponent inside the top-25 while SMU's only such content in conference play is a battle with 25th-ranked Virginia on Oct. 17 coming off an open date.

Jeff Brohm is trying to avoid going 0-3 against Rhett Lashlee and the Mustangs since SMU joined the ACC.

"Got a great opponent coming in here in SMU that we have not beat since we've played them," Brohm said this week. "So credit to them for playing good football, coaching well, putting a good plan together, executing, doing all those things.

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/