Miami Hurricanes miss out on College Football Playoff
The proverbial writing was on the wall on Tuesday that that the Miami Hurricanes would not be included in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
It became official on Sunday.
The Hurricanes were No. 13 in the final ranking made the the 13-person selection CFP committee, formally eliminating Miami from competing for a national championship.
UM finished 10-2 with its lone losses being on the road to Georgia Tech and Syracuse by a combined nine points. The Hurricanes were the second team out of the field.
On Tuesday, the committee had Miami as the first team out of the field, one spot behind a three-loss Alabama team, with selection committee chairman Warde Manuel saying there would be no re-ranking of teams that did not play in conference championship games because there would not be an extra data point with those teams for the committee to evaluate.
Any chance for the committee to have a change of heart and for Miami to have a chance for that final spot was dashed on Saturday night when three-loss Clemson beat SMU in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game to secure an auto-bid into the field and force SMU to make the field as an at-large.
Hurricanes athletic director Dan Radkovich posted on X that while he was “disappointed” Miami did not make the playoff field, he was “encouraged by progress in Mario Cristobal’s 3rd season.”
“10 wins for 1st time in 7 years and chance with bowl victory to post 11 wins for 1st time since 2003,” the post continued. “Look forward to building on our success #GoCanes”
The playoff field
The 12-team playoff field consists of the five highest-ranked conference championships followed by the next seven highest-ranked teams who make it as at-large teams.
The top four seeds in the field will be given to the highest four ranked conference champions, regardless of their actual ranking and receive a first-round bye.
The Nos. 1-4 seeds for the first-ever 12-team playoff are the Big Ten’s Oregon Ducks (No. 1 overall ranking), Southeastern Conference’s Georgia Bulldogs (No. 2 overall ranking, second-highest ranked conference champion), the Mountain West’s Boise State Broncos (No. 9 overall ranking, third-highest ranked conference champion) and the Big 12’s Arizona State (No. 12 overall ranking, fourth-highest ranked conference champion).
Clemson, ranked No. 16 overall, received the fifth auto-bid after winning the ACC championship and will be seeded No. 12.
The seven teams that made the field as at-larges: The Texas Longhorns (No. 3 overall ranking, No. 5 seed), Penn State Nittany Lions (No. 4 overall ranking, No. 6 seed), Notre Dame Fighting Irish (No. 5 overall ranking, No. 7 seed), Ohio State Buckeyes (No. 6 overall ranking, No. 8 seed), Tennessee Volunteers (No. 7 overall ranking, No. 9 seed), Indiana Hoosiers (No. 8 overall ranking, No. 10 seed) and SMU (No. 10 overall ranking, No. 11 seed).
Teams seeded 5-8 will host first-round games at their home site on either Dec. 20 or 21. No. 5 hosts No. 12, No. 6 hosts No. 11, No. 7 hosts No. 10 and No. 8 hosts No. 9.
The first-round matchups: Texas hosting Clemson (with the winner facing Arizona State in the quarterfinals), Penn State hosting SMU (with the winner facing Boise State in the quarterfinals), Notre Dame hosting Indiana (with the winner facing Georgia in the quarterfinal) and Ohio State hosting Tennessee (with the winner facing Oregon in the quarterfinals).
The four quarterfinals will be played at the Fiesta Bowl (Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. kickoff), Peach Bowl (Jan. 1, 1 p.m.), Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 5 p.m.) and Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m.).
The semifinals are at the Orange Bowl (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.) and Cotton Bowl (Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.). The national championship is Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
This story was originally published December 8, 2024 at 12:35 PM.
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