How conference championship results impact Miami Hurricanes’ playoff hopes
It looks like the Miami Hurricanes might have gotten the help they needed to make the College Football Playoff.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders easily handled the BYU Cougars 34-7 in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday afternoon. A few hours later, the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 28-7 in the SEC Championship Game.
Both of those results should — key word, should — help the Hurricanes in their quest to make the 12-team field.
That said, everything is in the hands of the 12-person CFP selection committee as the Hurricanes wait to find out if they will be one of the dozen teams competing for a national championship.
The selection show starts at noon Sunday and will be broadcast on ESPN. The field consists of the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams.
Why are these results in particular important for Miami’s case?
The Hurricanes entered the week No. 12 in the committee’s penultimate rankings, which technically had them on the outside looking in of the field entering conference championships because two of the five conference champions guaranteed spots in the field are ranked below them.
Miami (10-2, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) did not qualify for the ACC Championship Game, which left it playing the waiting game this week. Two of the ACC champion (either No. 17 Virginia or unranked Duke), the American-winning Tulane Green Wave and Sun Belt-winning James Madison Dukes will be guaranteed spots in the field along with Texas Tech, Georgia and the Big Ten championship winner (No. 1 Ohio State or No. 2 Indiana).
Because of this, UM entered the week essentially in a four-way battle for two spots. The teams it was competing directly with: No. 9 Alabama, No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 11 BYU.
Had Alabama and BYU won on Saturday, it would have locked the two into the field and shut out both Miami and Notre Dame.
Now, there will be some chaos and plenty of conversation to be had heading into Sunday’s selection show.
The Texas Tech result was the primary one Miami needed because BYU’s only way into the field was by winning the conference championship and thus securing an automatic berth into the field.
With the loss and the fashion in which they lost, it should — key word, should — be enough for the committee to flip Miami and BYU in the rankings on Sunday.
The real question now becomes what the committee decides to do with Alabama after the Crimson Tide sustained their third loss of the season. Alabama was the highest ranked of the four teams and the committee does not like to penalize teams too much for losing in conference championship games.
So what happens? Does...
1.) Alabama stand pat at No. 9 and the decision comes down to Miami vs. Notre Dame for the final spot, which should — again, the key word being should — mean the committee will finally compare the two head to head (with Miami’s 27-24 win on Aug. 31 being the deciding factor)?
2.) The committee drop the Crimson Tide below both Miami and Notre Dame and knock Alabama out of the field?
3.) The committee flip Notre Dame and Alabama and once again put a team in between the Fighting Irish and the Hurricanes, thus giving the committee a buffer between the teams so that it doesn’t have to directly compare Miami and Notre Dame?
Those are the big questions that awaits on Sunday.
Buckle up.
Full conference championship results
ACC: Duke 27, No. 17 Virginia 20 (OT)
Big Ten: No. 2 Indiana 13, No. 1 Ohio State 10
Big 12: No. 4 Texas Tech 34, No. 11 BYU 7
Southeastern Conference: No. 3 Georgia 28, No. 9 Alabama 7
American: No. 20 Tulane 34, No. 24 North Texas 21
Sun Belt: No. 25 James Madison 31, Troy 14
Mountain West: Boise State 38, UNLV 21
Conference-USA: Kennesaw State 19, Jacksonville State 15
MAC: Western Michigan 23, Miami (Ohio) 13
This story was originally published December 6, 2025 at 7:26 PM.
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