Where Miami Hurricanes landed in fifth College Football Playoff ranking of the season
The Miami Hurricanes ended the regular season with a 38-7 road win over a ranked Pittsburgh Panthers team for the final data point of its resume to make the College Football Playoff.
But if Tuesday’s ranking is any indication, Miami will be on the outside looking in barring some help on conference championship weekend.
For a second consecutive week, the Hurricanes on Tuesday checked in at No. 12 in the fifth of five weekly rankings picked by the 12-person selection committee before the final rankings on Sunday 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.
It’s the first time Miami did not move up in the rankings. The Hurricanes were No. 18 in the initial ranking, No. 15 in the second ranking and No. 13 in the third ranking, and No. 12 last week.
There are still three teams with two losses ranked ahead of Miami in the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners, No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide and No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. No. 11 BYU, which only has one loss this season, is also just ahead of Miami.
For the fourth consecutive week, UM is the highest-ranked team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
However, because Miami (10-2, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) is not playing in the ACC Championship Game — that’s a matchup between Virginia and Duke — UM remains on the outside looking in of the playoff field.
At this point, the Hurricanes’ hopes of an at-large bid rely on Alabama and BYU losing in their conference title games so they don’t receive automatic bids into the field, which would effectively steal spots from bubble teams competing for at-large spots.
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.
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 Oregon Ducks vs No. 12 TBD (read: The fifth-highest ranked conference champion), No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels vs. No. 11 TBD (read: The fourth-highest conference champion), No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies vs. No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 8 Oklahoma vs. No. 9 Alabama.
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 Georgia Bulldogs
No. 4 Texas Tech Red Raiders
No. 5 Oregon Ducks
No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels
No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies
No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners
No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide
No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
No. 11 BYU Cougars
No. 12 Miami Hurricanes
No. 13 Texas Longhorns
No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores
No. 15 Utah Utes
No. 16 USC Trojans
No. 17 Virginia Cavaliers
No. 18 Arizona Wildcats
No. 19 Michigan Wolverines
No. 20 Tulane Green Wave
No. 21 Houston Cougars
No. 22 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
No. 23 Iowa Hawkeyes
No. 24 North Texas Mean Green
No. 25 James Madison Dukes
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 7:13 PM.
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