After a 5-0 start to the season with three wins over ranked teams to start the 2025 season, the Miami Hurricanes once appeared destined for a CFP spot at the end of the season. However, after losses in two of their last three games, that is certainly no sure thing anymore, according to ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum.
Miami’s latest loss, a 26-20 defeat at the hands of SMU in Week 10, marks the team’s second conference loss. This obviously creates plenty of uncertainty as to whether the Hurricanes will ultimately reach the ACC Championship game.
Currently sitting in seventh in the ACC standings, Miami may very well need to win out not only to potentially get into the ACC championship game, but potentially to reach the CFP.
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Discussing Miami’s playoff chances, Finebaum painted a bleak picture, saying that the Hurricanes may very well need to run the table moving forward and have some “carnage” around college football to reach the CFP.
“The predictor is pretty accurate,” said Finebaum, via Sam Gillenwater of On3 Sports. “They have a path, somehow, if they can win out and have some carnage ahead of them, get in the ACC Championship and then win that. But, it’s not a very good path. And, I hate to break it, but it looks like another year without Miami in the playoff.”
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There is perhaps a case to be made that Miami could be an at-large bid into the CFP if they do win out. After all, their Week 1 win over Notre Dame, a potential CFP team in their own right, has aged quite nicely.
With that being said, this is certainly not the position that the program likely saw as a possibility to be in. Just a few weeks ago, Miami entirely controlled their own destiny when they were ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25 heading into Week 7.
On the bright side, the Hurricanes do have somewhat of a favorable schedule moving forward. Notably, the only team remaining on their schedule with a conference record over .500 is Pittsburgh. Though clearly, Miami may very well be fighting an uphill battle to get back in the good graces of the CFP committee moving forward.
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