The Miami Hurricanes have accomplished plenty in their program’s illustrious history. That includes five national championships, two Heisman Trophy winners, a slew of first-team All-Americans, and a number of Pro Football Hall of Famers.

But one thing the Hurricanes do not have is an ACC football championship. It’s pretty remarkable, as the Hurricanes were thought coming into the ACC in 2004 to be one of the two dominant forces in the conference, along with Florida State.

And not only has Miami not won the title, but they have only played for it once, in 2017. That ended in an ugly 38-3 loss to Clemson.

Miami can technically clinch first ACC Championship Game appearance since 2017 on Saturday

The Canes can clinch their second-ever appearance if they win two of their last three ACC games, all of which are at home. However, they could sew up a spot on Saturday if they beat the Duke Blue Devils and a couple of other things break their way.

Miami is 6-0, Wake Forest is 5-1, and there are currently four teams with two ACC losses: Louisville, SMU, Duke, and Clemson. If Wake beats SMU and UNC beats Louisville on Saturday, that would leave Duke and Clemson with two losses.

If Miami beats Duke on Saturday, they improve to 7-0 and Duke gets ACC loss number three. At that point, the worst Miami could do would be 7-2. The best Clemson could finish would be 6-2. With Miami holding the head-to-head tiebreaker, Miami gets the nod over Clemson and thus clinches no worse than the No. 2 seed in the ACC, thus securing their spot in Charlotte. And if Clemson, Wake, and Miami all end up with two ACC losses, Miami still gets the nod by having beaten them both.

Of course, Miami is looking to finish strong without Malachi Toney and get to 11-1, leaving very little doubt that they’re in the playoff regardless. But for those Hurricane fans looking to make firm travel plans to Charlotte, there’s a chance they could officially do that starting on Sunday.

It will be the last chance for Miami, or anyone, to win the ACC Championship Game, as the game is being scrapped as part of playoff expansion

With the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams next year, conference title games will be scrapped in the process. That means that December 5 will be the last chance for all teams to win their respective conference title games.

Miami fans have heard plenty about their program’s lack of success in the ACC. Winning the last conference title game would certainly silence that noise to some degree. We’ll find out starting this Saturday if they can firm up their participation in it.