Where Miami Hurricanes landed in first College Football Playoff ranking of the season
The first College Football Playoff ranking of the 2025 season has been unveiled, marking the first glimpse as to how the road to the 2026 National Championship Game at Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium could shake out.
And as expected, the Miami Hurricanes are on the outside looking in a month before the playoff field is finalized.
The Hurricanes on Tuesday checked in at No. 18 in the first of five weekly rankings picked by the 12-person selection committee before the final rankings on Dec. 8 that will ultimately determine the 12-team playoff field that will compete for a national title.
The Hurricanes (6-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) have lost two of their past three games — 24-21 to Louisville on Oct. 17 and 26-20 in overtime to SMU on Saturday — to put themselves on the bubble for a playoff bid with four weeks left in the regular season.
UM will need to win its final four regular-season games — Saturday at home against Syracuse, Nov. 15 at home against N.C. State, Nov. 22 at Virginia Tech and Nov. 29 at Pittsburgh — and get help in order to make the field.
How the playoff field will be decided
This is the second season of the 12-team playoff format after the field was only four teams for the first 10 years.
The five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic bids into the field. The next seven highest ranked teams receive at-large bids. All teams will be seeded by their ranking — a change from last year when the four highest-ranked conference champions were given the top four seeds and as such a first-round bye.
Of note: Only Power 4 conferences and Notre Dame were ranked in the top 25 this week. However, Memphis, which is the committee’s top team from beyond those conferences, would get the No. 12 seed if the season ended today. Additionally, Virginia, the highest ranked ACC team, would be the No. 11 seed despite being ranked No. 14.
Teams seeded 5-8 will host first-round games at their home site on either Dec. 19 or 20. No. 5 hosts No. 12, No. 6 hosts No. 11, No. 7 hosts No. 10 and No. 8 hosts No. 9.
As such, the first-round matchups based on this week’s rankings would be: No. 5 Georgia vs No. 12 Memphis, No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 11 Virginia, No. 7 BYU vs. No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 8 Texas Tech vs. No. 9 Oregon.
In the quarterfinals, the No. 1 seed will host the winner of the No. 8/9 matchup, the No. 2 seed the winner of the 7/10 matchup, the No. 3 seed the winner of the No. 6/11 matchup and the No. 4 seed the winner of the No. 5/12 matchup.
The four quarterfinals will be played at the Cotton Bowl (Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. kickoff), Orange Bowl (Jan. 1, noon), Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 4 p.m.) and Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 8 p.m.).
The semifinals are at the Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.) and Peach Bowl (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.). The national championship is Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium.
The full top 25
No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes
No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers
No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies
No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide
No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs
No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels
No. 7 BYU Cougars
No. 8 Texas Tech Red Raiders
No. 9 Oregon Ducks
No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
No. 11 Texas Longhorns
No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners
No. 13 Utah Utes
No. 14 Virginia Cavaliers
No. 15 Louisville Cardinals
No. 16 Vanderbilt Commodores
No. 17 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
No. 18 Miami Hurricanes
No. 19 USC Trojans
No. 20 Iowa Hawkeyes
No. 21 Michigan Wolverines
No. 22 Missouri Tigers
No. 23 Washington Huskies
No. 24 Pittsburgh Panthers
No. 25 Tennessee Volunteers
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 8:17 PM.
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