It's late October and the BCS is in bloom. There's nothing better on a crisp autumn day than to play a useless game of "what if?"

Since there is no realistic need to worry about whether South Carolina or Georgia could win the Southeastern Conference, and speculating about a Clemson turnaround in the most dysfunctional and unpredictable division in college football could be hazardous, there is only one compelling "what if?" scenario worth delving into around here.

What if Georgia Tech finishes in a three-way tie with Miami and Virginia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division? Who goes to the conference title game and plays for a spot in the Orange Bowl or possibly the BCS title game in Pasadena, Calif., if they each go 7-1 in the conference?

That possibility -- which is entirely reasonable since none of them has a single ranked team remaining on their schedules -- creates a tantalizing scenario where a couple of nonconference rivals may play the deciding roles in an ACC drama.

Should Georgia Tech (which beat Virginia Tech, which beat Miami, which beat Georgia Tech) end up in the Coastal three-way, the regular-season finale against hated rival Georgia could determine their fate in the ACC race. Not since Georgia Tech left the SEC in 1963 have the two teams met with any conference ramifications at stake.

Here's how the whole thing works. Should the three teams all end up 7-1 in the conference, the league will be forced to use the seventh tie-breaker to determine which team gets to represent the division in the ACC Championship game on Dec. 5 in Tampa, Fla.

That option involves the BCS standings -- but not the same method that created such a stink last year when Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech found themselves in the same predicament. That system sent the Sooners to the Big XII title game because they were ranked No. 2 in the BCS while Texas and Texas Tech were ranked Nos. 3 and 7 respectively. It left a particularly bad taste since Oklahoma leaped past Texas in the final weeks of the BCS standings despite losing to the Longhorns earlier in the season. Texas's only loss of the season came on a spectacular final-play touchdown by Texas Tech.

Well, the ACC has a different formula to try to minimize the whining from the jilted parties.

In the ACC tie-breaking method, the lowest BCS-rated team of the three is eliminated right off the bat. If the two remaining teams are ranked within five spots of each other in the final BCS poll, then the winner of the head-to-head matchup between them in the regular season would advance to Tampa. If the gap is six places or larger, the highest rated team goes regardless of the regular season result.

In this scenario, Texas would have gone over Oklahoma in the Big XII South last year and had the chance to earn a shot at No. 1 Florida in the BCS finale.

Based on the initial 2009 BCS standings released Sunday, Georgia Tech has some significant ground to make up. After an emotional victory over the fourth-ranked Hokies on Saturday, the Jackets debuted at No. 12 in the BCS -- squarely between Miami at No. 10 and Virginia Tech at No. 14.

Coaches certainly don't like to leave their team's fate in the hands of pollsters and computers, but Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson needs to start thinking about style points the rest of the way to soar at least six spots ahead of Miami. That will mean not only winning out, but winning impressively.

"It makes the next game bigger," Johnson said immediately after a win Saturday that many of his players considered the biggest of their careers. "That's what happens when you win."

And it could make the last game the biggest.

The nonconference rivalry showdown against Georgia at Bobby Dodd Stadium on the last week could prove pivotal. Miami takes on in-state upstart South Florida the same day, so the Jackets may have to root hard for the less heralded Big East team from Tampa to book their own ACC trip to Tampa, Fla.

Don't you think the Bulldogs might be motivated by the possibility of playing spoiler to Georgia Tech's ACC and BCS hopes? That would generate a lot of satisfaction in what has been a largely unsatisfying season for the SEC hopefuls.

It could all make for some interesting scoreboard viewing over the next six weeks. The Yellow Jackets need to avoid the unexpected pitfalls that have tripped them up in recent years. It starts Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., where the Jackets need to win for the first time since 1990 when they upset then-No. 1 Virginia and ultimately landed their own national title.

"It's an elimination game for us," Johnson said on Tuesday. "If we go up and don't win the game our chances of winning the Coastal Division are not very good."

What ultimately happens, however, might be out of their control. The best thing Georgia Tech fans can root for is that Clemson steps up on Saturday in Miami and takes the Hurricanes out of the mix.

If that doesn't happen, well ...