A Q&A with ESPN’s Chris Fowler: On this Canes team, the CFP controversy and more
Monday night’s College Football championship will be a home game of sorts not only for the Hurricanes, but also for ESPN lead play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler, who bought a residence in Miami Beach a decade ago and loves the South Florida culture and lifestyle.
Fowler, who’s always thoughtful and reasonable when discussing the sport, answered mostly UM and big-picture college football questions during a Thursday phone conversation as he prepares to call the UM-Indiana game with Kirk Herbstreit:
▪ Is college football better when the Canes are really good?
“It’s a little better for me because I like doing home games.”
But seriously: “This is a program that people of a certain age, especially, have feelings toward, positive or negative. Miami is still somewhat polarizing. People grew up watching those Canes teams — flashy, dominant teams that sort of reshaped college football for a time in the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s.
“It’s really nice to have them back in the championship game. They’ve almost like skipped some steps. They didn’t really compete for ACC championships. Obviously haven’t won one. They are going from very much on the fringe of the landscape nationally to front and center, which by the way, Indiana has done, too. Indiana has no history.
“The matchup is unique that way. This is the least likely national championship matchup that I can remember from preseason or even what you would have thought two months ago.”
▪ Are you surprised the Hurricanes are in the championship game in Year 4 of the Mario Cristobal era?
“I expected him to get things going in the right direction and I expected it would be pretty quickly.”
But “I’m surprised that this team [is here] after where they were a few months ago. I was disappointed when they lost to Louisville and SMU. At that point, I gave them no chance of getting here.
“The SMU loss Nov. 1, let’s be honest. If you follow this team, you know the pattern. Decline in November, December. Cristobal teams have struggled to play their best football at the end of the season. And now that’s exactly what they’ve done. Breaking that pattern is why you couldn’t say you expected it. [That pattern] happened at Oregon a bit, too.
“It took the urgency and adversity of those two losses to reset things. You need to sometimes stumble and refocus. The system is forgiving in a 12-team bracket.”
▪ Does the tiresome question of whether ‘the U is back’ bemuse you? And are they back?
“It’s very stale. And it’s a fuzzy question. Look at how good the U was. They won five championships between 1983 and 2001 and four in nine years. That’s not going to happen again. The landscape just doesn’t allow it. You’re not going to see dynasties like that going forward with the modern reality of the portal and the NIL. You’re not going to get back to that. But back to relevance? Absolutely. Back to being a contender? Absolutely.
“But they’re not going to get back to [the ‘80s/early ‘90s dominance]. You’re not going to see Alabama ever get back to that. It’s like a pro sports socialist system now. Anybody can spend money and get a representative roster. You either adapt and survive or you don’t.”
▪ Does the fact that it took a Utah loss in the Big 12 championship game to compel the committee to put UM and Notre Dame back to back in the CFP rankings — and thus get UM’s head-to-head win to make enough difference to put the Canes in the playoffs — reflect a flaw in the system or a flaw in this particular committee’s approach?
“When you lose a second game, you take it out of your hands and put it in other peoples’ hands, and it becomes subjective. It was very clear-cut Miami belonged in. I felt all along Miami belonged in. But I felt Notre Dame belonged in, too.
“Every year you are going to have circumstances arise where people want to tweak the system. I would think going forward they will look very closely at the Group of 5 champion. Do you automatically get in? Should James Madison, those teams, be able to get in? Their inclusion is a noble cause and a lot of people put their hand up for it except when it starts excluding Texas and Notre Dame and other teams that were clearly among the 12 best.
“There are 11 playoff games in the current format and two of them were basically walkovers because they involved Tulane and James Madison. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be included.. There has to be a pathway. They’ll try to tighten it up and reduce the odds of any of those teams getting in.
“So getting back to your question, I don’t know if it exposes a weakness, but Miami needed a couple of things to happen. Duke beating Virginia basically excluded the ACC, and that basically helped Miami. If Virginia had gotten in, I don’t know that Miami would have gotten an at large bid” even though the committee has disputed that.
▪ What about the Tuesday night ranking reveal show that ESPN has contractual rights to air but Notre Dame said should be eliminated because it creates false hope? (The Fighting Irish was in the field for five weeks and then replaced by Miami when the bids were announced, even though neither team played that final weekend.)
“Do you want transparency or at least the appearance of transparency or do you want to wait to be surprised on selection Sunday? I don’t mind the weekly shows. I don’t think the problem is the existence of the show. The problem is the lack of consistency. Notre Dame’s point is valid.
“What’s true in the end should have been true in previous weeks. Why have them ranked ahead of Miami [before the final rankings]? The rationale they came up with never washed to me. They weren’t in the same buckets because their resumes weren’t comparable? That’s nonsense. It took a win over Pittsburgh, a team that Notre Dame thumped, to get Miami in the same bucket? That didn’t make any sense to me.
“If they didn’t do any releases or any shows — which they think brings attention to the sport like the polls have always brought attention to the sport — I don’t have a problem with it. But you should have consistency. Year to year, committee membership changes. So what seems to be a priority one year might not be a priority the next year when the committee rolls over. That’s a problem.”
▪ Did your colleague Nick Saban lobbying for UM to get a playoff berth impact the committee’s decision, in your opinion?
“I don’t think so. He’s a respected figure. They will do what they do. It came down to a simple thing: [Notre Dame] played [Miami] and you lost. Period.”
▪ Should the playoffs have a 12-team field (the current format), a 16-team field (which the SEC wants) or a 24-team field (which the Big 10 wants), with a decision for next season due by next Friday’s deadline?
“Definitely not 24. Sixteen you would have to do away with byes. You can’t add another layer of games. The wear and tear is so real. Asking anyone to play more than four games to win it doesn’t make sense to me unless you do away with conference championship games, shorten the regular season by a game. All these things cost money to teams, take away revenue streams.”
▪ What do you admire about this Hurricanes team?
“The leadership, the togetherness. Whenever anybody makes a mistake on this team, the teammates have their back. Carson Beck has talked about it. He throws four picks [against Louisville], stands in front of the team and bears his soul, takes responsibility. Other guys stand up for him and say we have to have his back, he’s our quarterback.
“If that doesn’t happen, the team falls apart. In a transactional world, the buy-in isn’t the same. When you start losing games, the buy-in evaporates. Miami had great grit and resilience, but those things don’t come unless you buy in and stay together as a team.
“There are a lot of really intelligent players on that team. Football is really important to them, and that’s not a given, not in this world, man. Rueben Bain, Akheem Mesidor, then you’ve got Malachi Toney 18 going on 28 with his maturity and commitment.
“You’ve got a great mix of young dynamic players and portal additions. Mario has grown as a coach. He has shored up some areas that maybe he could have done better in the past. He’s always had great strengths as a coach and those are maximized. His growth as a coach is an important part of this. You learn things. You progress and improve and do the best you can at whatever pace you can. Mario is there. This has been a great showcase for his growth as a coach.
“He’s made some extremely some good hires; [defensive coordinator] Corey Hetherman was a spectacular hire. There is so much to sell down here. And the missing piece was you can come win a championship. It’s no longer a leap of faith. It’s shown Miami can be that team. It’s a free agent market. You have a lot to sell to free agents besides a big bag of money. You’ve got a great private school to go to, you’ve got Miami [to sell] as well and you can [tell players that you can] play for a championship and you can get great coaching and development.”
▪ Why do you make South Florida your primary residence?
“We moved to South Florida in 2016, lived in Miami Beach since then, had a couple different places. My wife and I have had a lot of history down here. She spent a lot of time down here as a kid. I have family down here. We have friends down here.
“We spend the majority of the year down here. I’m still not tough enough to hang out in the summer. I have responsibilities like tennis that take me away anyway.” (He will leave for the Australian Open on Tuesday after calling UM-Indiana on Monday.)
“We have roots in Colorado; spend some time there in the summer. And we keep a foothold in New York as well. But we love the vitality of Miami, and it’s way beyond the weather. I love the cultural mix and love what the city offers. I do feel younger when I’m down here.”
This is the 30th year that Fowler, 63, and Herbstreit have worked together (including their time on College GameDay years ago). They have called all 11 previous championship games in the playoff era.
FYI: ESPN will offer seven different presentations of Monday’s game. Here’s the network’s in-depth look at the MegaCast options.
Here’s my Friday piece on how some of the great Canes of yesteryear are experiencing this playoff run in their own unique way.
This story was originally published January 16, 2026 at 3:17 PM.
