How Miami can make College Football Playoff: Hurricanes’ path to CFP bracket
THE ACC College Football Playoff Photo This season is a convoluted mess that’s shaping up, largely due to 15th-ranked Miami’s recent failures as one of the league’s most talented teams. The Hurricanes (7-2) are the selection committee’s new conference favorites following unexpected stumbles by Virginia and Louisville last weekbut that’s not necessarily a hugely positive omen for Miami.
According to playoff protocol, five top-ranked conferences champions receive automatic bids in the 12-team bracket, but there’s a long and winding road for the Hurricanes — currently saddled with two ACC losses — to even have an opportunity to be the last team standing in the league. And in the general conversation, there is even more concern, despite the progression of three places in the ranking.
Miami’s College Football Playoff Journey
- College Football Playoff Rankings: n°15
- Playoff seed: No. 11 (ACC champion projected by committee)
- Best wins: No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 24 USF
- Losses: No. 20 Louisville, SMU
Remaining path
- vs. NC State (November 15)
- at Virginia Tech (November 22)
- at No. 22 Pitt (November 29)
It appears Miami’s entry this week needs an explanation after the committee ranked the Hurricanes as the best team in the ACC in Tuesday’s update despite six teams ahead of them in the league standings. Unless Miami wins the conference, which is low on the list of possibilities for the rest, the Hurricanes’ only chance of reaching the playoffs is to make the group as an at-large selection. Perhaps the win over Notre Dame will be revisited in the coming weeks by the committee and Miami will take the lead? Who knows.
There is still one extremely bumpy road to a championship title game appearance for the Hurricanes. Starting with the win, they need four of the following five scenarios to play out in Charlotte the first weekend of December:
Vegas says
Seven ACC teams are at plus-money in playoff discussion, suggesting that bettors aren’t sure who to pick as the current favorite to win the league and advance to the bracket. In Miami’s case, the odds against the Hurricanes are +490 (yes) and -790 (no), according to FanDuel. That’s what’s happening at 2-2 in your last four games heading into Saturday’s game against NC State.
We think…
Miami moved up three spots in Tuesday’s update, but there’s a hint of false hope there. As the top-ranked team in the ACC, the Hurricanes were in 11th place in the projected bracket if the season ended today — but that’s not the case and there are simply too many hills to climb for Mario Cristobal’s team to make the playoffs. For starters, it would help the Hurricanes if Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, BYU And Vanderbilt lost another game.
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