ACC Kickoff notebook: Carson Beck back to 100% ahead of Miami debut

CHARLOTTE -- Carson Beck hasn't exactly had a typical first offseason at Miami.

The Georgia transfer quarterback suffered a UCL injury in his elbow in the Bulldogs' 22-19 SEC championship game victory over Texas. That injury unceremoniously ended his five-year career in Athens and kept him sidelined this spring at his new school after transferring in January.

But Beck said Tuesday at ACC Kickoff that he's now back to 100 percent after starting to throw again in April.

"It was a hard process," Beck said. "It was a hard journey to go through that and get what I love the most taken away from me."

He arrives in Miami coming off two productive seasons with the Bulldogs in which he threw for 7,426 yards, 52 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

After replacing Stetson Bennett, who led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022, he now replaces another local legend in former Miami quarterback Cam Ward, who was a 2024 Heisman Trophy finalist and the No. 1 overall pick in April's NFL Draft.

"We're thrilled to have had Cam and we're thrilled to have Carson here now," Miami head coach Mario Cristobal said. "Carson has as good of experience as a quarterback as you can have. He's played in monster games, and he's played at a high level."

--Lashlee speaks out against CFP committee approach

Rhett Lashlee's first season in the ACC as SMU head coach was a smashing success.

He led the Mustangs to appearances in the ACC championship game and College Football Playoff behind an 11-1 regular season (8-0 ACC).

And yet, even if his team benefited from the subjective nature of the CFP committee last season, Lashlee talked at length Tuesday about why he believes college football needs to move away from using a selection committee to determine the playoff field.

"I respect what (the committee has) to do," Lashlee said. "But honestly it's a situation that's set up for failure because there's human bias and there's always going to be."

Lashlee was fierce in his belief that the CFP should settle at 16 teams. To avoid the subjective arguments that the committee would have to handle, he wants to see automatic bids expand dramatically and for conferences to have play-in games for CFP spots after the regular season ends.

"It would be like March Madness Thursday and Friday," Lashlee said. "It would be the best Saturday that college football could ever manufacture."

--ACC instituting player availability reports for 2025-26 season

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips announced during his address on Tuesday that the conference will be introducing a few new rules and regulations in 2025 that will move the conference in line with current college athletics trends.

Most notably, the ACC will mandate player availability reports ahead of all conference football, basketball and baseball games. This follows in the footsteps of the Big Ten mandating availability reports starting in 2023 and the SEC introducing them in 2024.

"This decision is directly connected to our ongoing commitment to best protect our student-athletes and our multi-faceted approach to addressing the effects of sports wagering," Phillips said.

The initial reports will be published two days before each conference game and will be updated the day before and day of each game.

--Curt Weiler, Field Level Media