With their regular season complete, the Hurricanes’ chances at the playoffs are on life support.
Miami stayed put at No. 12 in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. Given the state of the field, the Hurricanes will need BYU and Alabama to lose their conference title games and hope the selection committee slides UM into the No. 10 spot.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Hurricanes need to reach No. 10 because two teams — either the ACC champion and a Group of 5 team or two Group of 5 teams — will slide into the bracket from above them in the rankings.
Miami is ranked 12th despite its 10-2 record — identical to No. 10 Notre Dame (a team UM beat in Week 1), No. 8 Oklahoma and No. 9 Alabama.
Immediately after Miami beat Pittsburgh on the road last week, coach Mario Cristobal, UM players and athletic director Dan Radakovich started lobbying for the Hurricanes to make the playoffs.
“This is a College Football Playoff team,” Cristobal said in a post-game interview with ABC. “We’ve all seen it. We know it.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCristobal spent the last two days going on multiple sports talk shows and podcasts to explain why he thinks the Hurricanes deserve a spot in the playoffs for the first time.
He was not alone.
The ACC has been lobbying for Miami to make the playoffs for weeks. This week, the conference was joined by numerous media personalities, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State — and former Florida senator — Marco Rubio.
“If the University of Miami gets screwed out of the College Football Playoff after going 10-2 and beating Notre Dame, the whole thing should be scrapped and (President Donald Trump is) going to have to take over it next year,” Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHere is the penultimate College Football Playoff ranking:1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Georgia
4. Texas Tech
5. Oregon
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma
9. Alabama
10. Notre Dame
11. BYU
12. Miami
13. Texas
14. Vanderbilt
15. Utah
16. USC
17. Virginia
18. Arizonza
19. Micigan
20. Tulane
21. Houston
22. Georgia Tech
23. Iowa
24. North Texas
25. James Madison
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