Saturday’s chaos snapped the conference awake. Cal stunned SMU, Duke knocked off Wake Forest, and suddenly the 7-5 Blue Devils emerged as the ACC’s sacrificial lamb for the title game. Oddsmakers may only have Duke as a three-point underdog to Virginia, but the league sees something far more threatening. If they win, there’s a possibility that its champion may be unranked, unloved, and unwanted by the CFP committee.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips knows the stakes, which explains why he met with Scott Fowler for a sweeping, almost defensive interview this week. When asked if the ACC needs to expand again, his response was unsettling, not because of what he said, but because of what he couldn’t.

“I don’t know,” he admitted to Fowler . “I don’t think anybody’s sure.”

He pointed to g

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