Miami is squarely on the College Football Playoff bubble with their regular season officially in the books, and athletic director Dan Radakovich is doing everything he can to convince the selection committee that the Hurricanes deserve a spot in the 12-team field.
Miami did not reach the ACC Championship Game, which means its season has ended with a 10-2 record. The Hurricanes were ranked 12th in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, and that was before they dominated No. 22 Pitt in a 38-7 road win on Saturday. The new rankings will be released on Tuesday.
With Duke and Virginia set to face one another in the ACC Championship Game, Miami’s only chance of making the College Football Playoff would be via an at-large bid. Many people have argued that the Hurricanes deserve to be ranked ahead of Notre Dame, which also finished the season 10-2 and does not play in a conference championship game.
Notre Dame was ranked 9th in last week’s CFP rankings — three spots ahead of Miami. The problem that Radakovich and others have with that is that Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24 in the first game of the season. On Monday, Radakovich took to social media to question why the Fighting Irish would be ranked ahead of Miami when other teams are ranked ahead of opponents that they beat.
“1-loss UGA beat 1-loss Ole Miss – ranked ahead of them. Ditto for Texas Tech over BYU. 2-loss OU beat 2-loss Bama who beat 2-loss Vandy. @CFBPlayoff rankings reflect those results. How is @CanesFootball win over ND different? Head-to-head not ‘a’ data point but ‘the’ data point,” Radakovich wrote on X.
1-loss UGA beat 1-loss Ole Miss – ranked ahead of them. Ditto for Texas Tech over BYU. 2-loss OU beat 2-loss Bama who beat 2-loss Vandy. @CFBPlayoff rankings reflect those results. How is @CanesFootball win over ND different? Head-to-head not “a” data point but “the” data point!
— Dan Radakovich (@DanRadakovich) December 1, 2025
Radakovich laid out his argument in more detail in an open letter to the University of Miami community. He called the Hurricanes the most “statistically balanced” of the teams that rank No. 8 through No. 13 in the latest CFP rankings, which is a group that includes two-loss Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama and Utah in addition to one-loss BYU. Radakovich points out that Miami is ranked 7th in ESPN’s FPI rankings ahead of one-loss Georgia, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and BYU.
One of the four main principles that the College Football Playoff selection committee adheres to is head-to-head competition. The argument in favor of Miami is simple — the Hurricanes have a similar schedule and are statistically similar to Notre Dame, but they beat the Fighting Irish head-to-head.
Duke is unranked and has five losses. If the Blue Devils beat No. 18 Virginia in the ACC Championship Game, it is possible the ACC will be left out of the College Football Playoff altogether. That would create a situation where the ACC champion is not one of the five highest-ranked conference champions.
Even with the CFP having expanded to 12 teams, there is always going to be major controversy over at least one team making it and one team that was left out. We saw that with one of the country’s top programs last year, and Miami’s resume has already become the biggest topic of debate in 2025.
