Where Miami Hurricanes landed in fourth College Football Playoff ranking of the season
The Miami Hurricanes, fresh off a 34-17 win over the Virginia Tech Hokies, continue their slow climb up in the College Football Playoff rankings with just a few weeks left to make their case to be in the postseason.
The Hurricanes on Tuesday checked in at No. 12 in the fourth 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 championship this season is at Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium. That’s a one-spot bump up from Miami’s No. 13 ranking from last week. The Hurricanes were No. 18 in the initial ranking two weeks ago and No. 15 in the second ranking.
Miami jumped Utah to move up in the ranking.
For the third consecutive week, UM is the highest-ranked team from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Because of that, Miami for the time being is slotted into the playoff field as the ACC champion — although that is far from a given with Miami (9-2, 5-2 ACC) technically on the outside looking in of the conference title game entering this week.
In fact, Miami still needs a lot to happen — at minimum a win at Pittsburgh on Saturday (noon, ESPN) and at least two of Virginia, Duke and SMU losing along with potentially needing wins from NC State (over UNC) and/or Syracuse (over Boston College) — to make the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte.
The Hurricanes’ hopes of an at-large bid into the field also hinges on them winning at Pitt plus most likely getting some additional external help.
There are still three teams with two losses ranked ahead of Miami in the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners, No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide.
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.
Miami, at No. 13 and the highest-ranked team in the ACC, would be the No. 11 seed in this scenario. Tulane, at No. 24 in the rankings and the highest ranked team among the non-Power 4 conferences, would be the No. 12 seed in this scenario.
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 Texas Tech vs No. 12 Tulane (read: The highest ranked Group of 5 champion), No. 6 Oregon vs. No. 11 Miami (read: Whoever wins the ACC championship), No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Alabama and No. 8 Oklahoma vs. No. 9 Notre Dame.
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 Georgia Bulldogs
No. 5 Texas Tech Red Raiders
No. 6 Oregon Ducks
No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels
No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners
No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide
No. 11 BYU Cougars
No. 12 Miami Hurricanes
No. 13 Utah Utes
No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores
No. 15 Michigan Wolverines
No. 16 Texas Longhorns
No. 17 USC Trojans
No. 18 Virginia Cavaliers
No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers
No. 20 Arizona State Sun Devils
No. 21 SMU Mustangs
No. 22 Pittsburgh Panthers
No. 23 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
No. 24 Tulane Green Wave
No. 25 Arizona Wildcats
This story was originally published November 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM.
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