Five teams tied for second place in the ACC football race this season. Only one can play first-place Virginia in the conference championship game Saturday in Charlotte.

Courtesy of the league’s tiebreakers, that team is 7-5 Duke, arguably the least qualified of the group. Moreover, if the Blue Devils upset the Cavaliers, the ACC could face the embarrassing prospect of being left out of the College Football Playoff.

Such is the outcome when an imperfect process meets an unusual résumé.

“Any way you do the tiebreaker, someone’s going to be pissed,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said during a media call Sunday. “It’s not just an ACC problem because this is going to be a problem every year.”

Yes, yes, and sort of.

Absent clear head-to-head superiority — Teams A, B and C tied; Team A defeated B an

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