The final regular season week of college football has set the stage for conference championships.<\/p>\n
All eyes were on the ACC on Saturday, as a crowded race to the conference title game began to take shape. Virginia and SMU had simple paths and could have clinched a championship game appearance with a win. Virginia got the job done with a win over Virginia Tech<\/a>, but SMU fell short<\/a> against Cal, which opened the door for Duke. The Blue Devils will face Virginia in Charlotte as a result.<\/p>\n With five losses this season, Duke winning the ACC championship might not be enough to earn a CFP bid and could allow another spot for a Group of Five conference winner.<\/p>\n Alabama clinched a spot in the SEC championship with a win against Auburn<\/a> in the Iron Bowl. The Crimson Tide will meet No. 4 Georgia in Atlanta.<\/p>\n Ohio State solidified a perfect 12-0 season and will play in the Big Ten championship after a win over Michigan<\/a>. The Buckeyes now prepare to meet an unbeaten Indiana team in the title game.<\/p>\n And in the Big 12, Texas Tech and BYU prepare to meet again, this time in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n ACC<\/p>\n No. 17 Virginia clinched a spot in the ACC championship game on Saturday with a 27-7 win over Virginia Tech<\/a>. SMU also had a straightforward route and could have clinched with a win against California, but the Mustangs fell just short and failed to send the teams to overtime with a missed buzzer-beater field goal.<\/p>\n SMU\u2019s loss cleared a path for Duke, who earned a spot in the ACC title game as a result. <\/p>\n CFP: The ACC playoff picture is complicated with five teams in the College Football Playoff Top 25<\/a> ahead of Tuesday\u2019s rankings from the selection committee. But Miami<\/a> is the only one inside the top 12, and it is on the bubble when it comes to an at-large bid. A win against Pitt<\/a> helps, but the Hurricanes still need more.<\/p>\n Big 12<\/p>\n No. 7 Texas Tech will play No. 11 BYU next Saturday in Arlington, Texas, for the conference championship. It\u2019s a rematch after the Red Raiders beat the Cougars 29-7<\/a> on Nov. 8. <\/p>\n CFP: The Big 12 is hoping to be a two-bid league with its title game participants and No. 14 Utah (No. 13 CFP) on the doorstep if there is any turmoil. <\/p>\n Big Ten<\/p>\n No. 1 Ohio State checked a major box for its season when it knocked off No. 15 Michigan with a 27-9 victory. The Buckeyes punched their ticket to the Big Ten title game and an anticipated matchup with No. 2 Indiana next Saturday in Indianapolis. <\/p>\n Indiana is going for its first conference crown since 1967. It heads to the title game with the nation\u2019s second-best scoring offense and scoring defense and a Heisman Trophy contender in quarterback Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n CFP: Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon appear to be locks for the playoff, with the Buckeyes looking to win back-to-back national championships. Oregon finished the regular season with an 11-1 record<\/a> after defeating Washington on Saturday.<\/p>\n SEC<\/p>\n Alabama did its job Saturday night, surpassing Auburn<\/a> in the Iron Bowl to clinch a spot in the SEC championship game. Alabama will face Georgia, which solidified its spot with a win over Georgia Tech<\/a> on Friday. It will be Kirby Smart\u2019s fourth time facing the Crimson Tide in the conference title game.<\/p>\n Georgia has won eight in a row since its only loss of the season, to Alabama, on Sept. 27.<\/a><\/p>\n CFP: Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Alabama were all ranked in the CFP top 10 going into Saturday\u2019s games. The Sooners narrowly avoided an upset loss<\/a> to LSU on Saturday, keeping their playoff hopes alive. A big question is what to do with Texas, which is 9-3 and has wins over Texas A&M and Oklahoma but losses to Florida, Ohio State and, by 25 points, Georgia. <\/p>\n American Athletic<\/p>\n No. 21 North Texas and No. 22 Tulane will square off in the AAC title game on Friday. Tulane joined the Mean Green in the title game after a dominant win against Charlotte on Saturday night.<\/p>\n Conference USA<\/p>\n Jacksonville State beat Western Kentucky<\/a> on Saturday to clinch a spot in the Conference USA title game as well as hosting rights. Jacksonville State will take on Kennesaw State, which beat Liberty to make its first Conference USA championship game. <\/p>\n Mid-American<\/p>\n Western Michigan and Miami (Ohio) will meet in the MAC title game next Saturday in Detroit. The RedHawks clinched their third straight conference championship appearance with a 45-24 win against Ball State on Saturday. <\/p>\n Mountain West<\/p>\n There will be either a three-way or four-way tie for first \u2014 depending on how UNLV does Saturday at Nevada \u2014 and the deadlock will be broken by computer metrics<\/a>. San Diego State, Boise State and New Mexico all have 6-2 conference records. The title game is Friday at the home of the higher seed.<\/p>\n Sun Belt<\/p>\n No. 20 James Madison will host Troy on Friday in the Sun Belt Conference championship game. Troy clinched its spot in the championship game after a 28-18 win against Southern Miss on Saturday. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Noah Trister contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final regular season week of college football has set the stage for conference championships. All eyes were…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":414700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[12955,38058,8804,31591,28116,11140,173797,1428,1369,2778,1318,4353,3919,44840,101439,7800,86529,1317,1315,1316,4733,83542,31596,188842,188843,62,8799,67,132,68,906,32858,177146,35605],"class_list":{"0":"post-414699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-atlantic-coast-conference","10":"tag-auburn-tigers","11":"tag-auburn-tigers-football","12":"tag-big-12-conference","13":"tag-big-ten-conference","14":"tag-brigham-young-cougars","15":"tag-college-football","16":"tag-college-sports","17":"tag-fernando-mendoza","18":"tag-football","19":"tag-georgia","20":"tag-georgia-bulldogs","21":"tag-georgia-bulldogs-football","22":"tag-james-madison","23":"tag-michigan-wolverines","24":"tag-michigan-wolverines-football","25":"tag-ncaa","26":"tag-ncaa-football","27":"tag-ncaafootball","28":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","29":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes-football","30":"tag-southeastern-conference","31":"tag-southern-methodist-mustangs","32":"tag-southern-methodist-mustangs-football","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-us","38":"tag-virginia","39":"tag-virginia-cavaliers","40":"tag-virginia-cavaliers-football","41":"tag-virginia-tech-hokies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}