By R.L. Bynum

Should North Carolina need to win a tiebreaker with Louisville to make the league championship game, the Cardinals’ easy ACC schedule could be helpful for the Tar Heels.

In the first ACC football season without divisions since 2004, the teams finishing first and second in the ACC standings will play in the ACC championship game.

No. 25 Louisville, which moved to 6–0 overall Saturday with a 30–20 home victory over No. 10 Notre Dame, has a relatively easy remaining league schedule.

While that might help the Cardinals — who don’t meet UNC — build a good league record, it probably hurts them in a tiebreaker.

The Cardinals are 3–0 in the league and will be heavily favored at Pittsburgh (Oct. 14) and in home games against Virginia Tech (Nov. 4) and Virginia (Nov. 9); all three have losing records. Louisville will likely not have to face quarterback Riley Leonard when it plays Duke at home on Oct. 28, and finishes its league schedule at Miami on Nov. 18.

The No. 1 ACC tiebreaker is head-to-head, which would be moot in a Carolina-Louisville tiebreaker.

Neither No. 2 (winning percentage against common opponents) nor No. 3 (winning percentage against common opponents, starting with the top of the league standings and going down) would settle it if they were both undefeated.

If they both have one loss, it would depend on who the losses came against.

No. 4, however, is “combined win percentage of conference opponents.”

The ACC teams that UNC faces that Louisville doesn’t are Syracuse and Clemson. The teams that Louisville faces but Carolina doesn’t are Boston College and Virginia Tech. Neither team faces No. 5 Florida State.

It’s unlikely that the Eagles and Hokies will have a better league record than the Orange and the Tigers by the end of the season.

After Saturday’s play, Syracuse and Clemson have a combined ACC record of 2–4, while Boston College and Virginia Tech are a combined 2–3. But that’s likely to change in the next few weeks as the Eagles face Miami, the Hokies play at Florida State, and both play Syracuse and Louisville.

Should the Tar Heels take care of business and go through the league unbeaten, a tiebreaker with a Louisville team unbeaten in the ACC doesn’t figure to be a problem. But anything could happen, of course.

ACC tiebreakers

Above tiebreaker image via @Brett_McMurphy

Team	ACC	All
No. 16 Virginia	7–1	10–2
No. 12 Miami	6–2	10–2
No. 25 SMU	6–2	8–4
No. 24 Georgia Tech	6–2	9–3
Pittsburgh	6–2	8–4
Duke	6–2	7–5
Louisville	4–4	8–4
Wake Forest	4–4	8–4
California	4–4	7–5
Clemson	4–4	7–5
N.C. State	4–4	7–5
Stanford	3–5	4–8
Florida State	2–6	5–7
North Carolina	2–6	4–8
Virginia Tech	2–6	3–9
Syracuse	1–7	3–9
Boston College	1–7	2–10

Friday’s result
No. 4 Georgia 16, No. 24 Georgia Tech 9
Saturday’s results
N.C. State 42, North Carolina 19
No. 12 Miami 38, Pittsburgh 7
Louisville 41, Kentucky 0
Clemson 28, South Carolina 14
Boston College 34, Syracuse 12
Duke 49, Wake Forest 32
Florida 40, Florida State 21
No. 16 Virginia 27, Virginia Tech 7
California 38, No. 25 SMU 35
No. 9 Notre Dame 49, Stanford 20
Saturday’s ACC championship game
No. 16 Virginia vs. Duke in Charlotte, 8 p.m., ABC

Month/ date	Score/ time	Opponent	Record/ TV
September
1	L, 48–14	vs. TCU	0–1
6	W, 20–3	at Charlotte	1–1
13	W, 41–6	vs. Richmond	2–1
20	L, 34–9	at UCF	2–2
October
4	L, 38–10	vs. Clemson	2–3, 0–1 ACC
17 (Fri.)	L, 21–18	at California	2–4, 0–2
25	L, 17–16, OT	vs. No. 16 Virginia	2–5, 0–3
31 (Fri.)	W, 27–10	at Syracuse	3–5, 1–3
November
8	W, 20–15	vs. Stanford	4–5, 2–3
15	L, 28–12	at Wake Forest	4–6, 2–4
22	L, 32–25	vs. Duke	4–7, 2–5
29	L, 42–19	at N.C. State	4–8, 2–6