The Miami Hurricanes had their path to the College Football Playoff perfectly laid out. Beat Syracuse in Week 14, punch their ticket to the ACC Championship Game, and secure a first-round bye.
But Syracuse had other ideas. Now, after a shocking loss to the Orange, the Hurricanes find themselves … out … of the playoff conversation?
Will Miami Make the Playoffs After Loss to Syracuse?
Syracuse’s win over Miami dealt a crushing blow to the Hurricanes, knocking them out of contention for the ACC Championship Game and obliterating their playoff hopes. Ranked No. 6 by the committee entering the week, Miami’s dream season unraveled in dramatic fashion under the dome, with the team suffering its second loss of the year.
With two losses and no path to the ACC Championship, Miami is now on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff. Combine that with the fact that they earned just the 12th seed in this week’s College Football Playoff Rankings, and you’ve got a team who lost everything in Week 14.
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The ACC Champion will now be SMU or Clemson, and Miami was set to be subject to making the playoffs as an at-large team. And as a two-loss ACC team competing with multiple three-loss SEC teams, the ‘Canes road map involved a map that now seems impossible.
Can Miami Make the Playoffs At All?
Yes, Miami is not mathematically out of the picture, but at this rate, it would take incredible odds for Miami to make the playoffs.
With the No. 12 overall ranking, the Hurricanes are set to be the last team out of the 12-team playoff field. Here’s how that works.
The Big 12 champion will come from Arizona State (No. 15) or Iowa State (No. 16). That means in order to classify for one of the at-large berths into the college football playoffs, a team must rank within the top 11 teams.
For Miami, they find themselves behind a trio of teams that can no longer lose this season, meaning that no more teams can drop in the rankings enough to vault them into that last spot.
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It would take something catastrophic for the ‘Canes to make the playoffs at this rate, and even then, there’s no guarantee that the committee will make the decisions needed to jump Miami.
In any scenario that saw Miami moving up a spot, it would have to include Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio State, Georgia, or Notre Dame moving downward. And that’s just not feasible given the fact that only Georgia plays in the SEC Championship Game this weekend.
The only scenario that could be applied that jumps Miami up a spot and evicts a team would be is if something came to light in comparing Miami to Alabama or if Georgia loses to Texas so bad that the committee just simply has to remove them from contention.
And even in that scenario, it would be Alabama that jumps into the playoffs.
So, sorry ‘Canes’ fans, it’s not looking good for a playoff berth this season.
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