Hurricanes AD talks Mario Cristobal, state of college football ahead of opener
Ahead of the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes’ marquee season opener against the No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium (7:30 p.m., ABC), UM athletic director Dan Radakovich spoke with reporters on Monday about a wide-ranging set of topics.
Here are the highlights from that press conference.
His thoughts on the direction of the football team entering Year 4 under coach Mario Cristobal: “I think that Mario has created this football program now, in Year 4, really in his image from the inside out [starting with the] offensive and defensive lines. Those are things that are the cornerstones of successful football programs. We’ve had a great quarterback play, great skill play. I think it’s all coming together right now and I think he feels very, very comfortable as he gets ready to take his team into this game against an incredible opponent with Notre Dame. But I think as he’s looked at the team from spring practice through summer and it through fall practice, he knows that there are players here now who understand the way he wants to play, how [offensive coordinator] Shannon [Dawson] wants to play on offense, the way [defensive coordinator] Corey [Hetherman] has brought in his defense. I think all of those things have lined up here right now to give the head coach a really good feeling that moving forward, for this year, we have a great opportunity in front of us and the horses to be able to do that.”
On the support the athletic department is getting from boosters: “Well last year, the year that ended on May 31 — our fiscal year — we raised more money than we had in the previous four or five years. It was a high water mark. I think the highest number might have been in 2017 or ‘18. I might have the years wrong there, but that was when there was a real push to raise money for the indoor practice facility. So outside of that focus for one particular item, this past year was one when our donors were very, very good to us, and I think they were able to see the success of last year and how our program is moving forward. They bought in, and they’re a big part of what we need to do.”
On his thoughts on another potential round of expansion to the College Football Playoff: “I think as a league, we came together, as has been widely reported, under the 5-11 circumstance [five automatic qualifiers for the top five conference champions, 11 at-large teams for a potential 16-team field]. But as things move forward, and there are other opportunities to look at different models, I think until something is is etched in stone and the commissioners agree to it, we should continue to talk about it because there are positives and negatives to each of those types of things that have been talked about. We get together as athletic directors probably some time in September. The date hasn’t been assigned yet, so we’ll we’ll talk about that. I’m sure that’ll be a focus of the conversation.”
On how conversations have gone regarding revenue sharing following the House settlement: “I think that you all know that President [Joe] Echevarria is a huge supporter of the athletic program, so our ability to utilize that $20.5 million and how we spread it around — we’ve kind of put everything into those buckets. He has certainly given us the thumbs up to move forward in that direction, and then other opportunities that can come forward for our student-athletes in different ways. ... I think that we’ve kind of settled in where we are now we’re starting the process to move forward into the following year, so those, those conversations will be taking place shortly.”
On if he thinks the ACC will or should go to nine conference games: “It could. We really could. That’s one of the things that we’re going to talk about in September, not only the College Football Playoff piece, but is it right for the Atlantic Coast Conference to go to nine games? The real question might not be ‘Is nine [conference] games the right answer?’ but ‘Are 10 power conference games the answer?’ Do you need to write down and really kind of hold to the fact that you’re going, as a member of this league, play 10 Power 4 schools during the course of the season? That’s important because I could play a team within the ACC based on the scheduling run, someone who’s not having a great year or I could go out and maybe have an opportunity to play one of those teams in the other leagues that has an in-state rival within their conference or their rival’s within their conference and they’re looking for a Power 4 conference game. We can have a great matchup, and it could be a home-and-home. It could be one of those games where you can get a high-level viewership that could help you along the way. That’s going to be something that we need to talk about.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2025 at 5:10 PM.
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