Where Miami Hurricanes rank in College Football Playoff poll

If the season ended today, the Miami Hurricanes would be in the College Football Playoff field — with a major caveat on that note.

The Hurricanes on Tuesday checked in at No. 15 in the second of five weekly rankings picked by the 12-person selection committee before the final rankings on Dec. 8 that will ultimately determine the 12-team playoff field that will compete for a national title. The championship this season is at Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium. That’s a three-spot bump up from Miami’s initial ranking at No. 18.

It also makes UM the highest-ranked team from the Atlantic Coast Conference, so for the time being is slotted into the playoff field as the ACC champion — although that is far from a given with Miami (7-2, 3-2 ACC) technically on the outside looking in of the conference title game entering this week.

In reality, Miami will probably still need to win its final three regular-season games — Saturday at home against NC State, Nov. 22 at Virginia Tech and Nov. 29 at Pittsburgh — to secure its playoff spot.

The Hurricanes beat the Syracuse Orange 38-10 on Saturday and saw a pair of teams a few spots above them in last week’s ranking — Louisville and Virginia — lose to help Miami inch closer to the cut line for the playoffs. Miami is in this on-the-bubble position because it lost two games in a three-week span — 24-21 to Louisville on Oct. 17 and 26-20 in overtime to SMU on Saturday — following a 5-0 start to the season.

“The conversation with Miami has been about their consistency, especially on offense,” CFP selection committee chair Mack Rhoades said on ESPN after the latest rankings were unveiled. “They’ve been really, really good on defense. The head to head with Notre Dame comes up. A lot of conversation about Notre Dame — seven straight [wins], better defensively than what they were at the beginning of the year — all of those things played into it. We’ve got great respect for Miami. When you think about the eye test, they’re really talented on both sides of the ball. Just need to be a little bit more consistent on the offense.”

There are still five teams with two losses ranked ahead of Miami in No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 10 Texas, No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 13 Utah and No. 14 Vanderbilt.

How the playoff field will be decided

This is the second season of the 12-team playoff format after the field was only four teams for the first 10 years.

The five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic bids into the field. The next seven highest ranked teams receive at-large bids. All teams will be seeded by their ranking — a change from last year when the four highest-ranked conference champions were given the top four seeds and as such a first-round bye.

Miami, at No. 15 and the highest-ranked team in the ACC, would be the No. 11 seed in this scenario. USF, at No. 24 in the rankings and the highest ranked team in the American Conference, would be the No. 12 seed in this scenario.

Teams seeded 5-8 will host first-round games at their home site on either Dec. 19 or 20. No. 5 hosts No. 12, No. 6 hosts No. 11, No. 7 hosts No. 10 and No. 8 hosts No. 9.

As such, the first-round matchups based on this week’s rankings would be: No. 5 Georgia vs No. 12 USF, No. 6 Texas Tech vs. No. 11 Miami, No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Texas and No. 8 Oregon vs. No. 9 Notre Dame.

In the quarterfinals, the No. 1 seed will host the winner of the No. 8/9 matchup, the No. 2 seed the winner of the 7/10 matchup, the No. 3 seed the winner of the No. 6/11 matchup and the No. 4 seed the winner of the No. 5/12 matchup.

The four quarterfinals will be played at the Cotton Bowl (Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. kickoff), Orange Bowl (Jan. 1, noon), Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 4 p.m.) and Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 8 p.m.).

The semifinals are at the Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.) and Peach Bowl (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.). The national championship is Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium.

The full top 25

No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes

No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers

No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies

No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide

No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs

No. 6 Texas Tech Red Raiders

No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels

No. 8 Oregon Ducks

No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

No. 10 Texas Longhorns

No. 11 Oklahoma Sooners

No. 12 BYU Cougars

No. 13 Utah Utes

No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores

No. 15 Miami Hurricanes

No. 16 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

No. 17 USC Trojans

No. 18 Michigan Wolverines

No. 19 Virginia Cavaliers

No. 20 Louisville Cardinals

No. 21 Iowa Hawkeyes

No. 22 Pittsburgh Panthers

No. 23 Tennessee Volunteers

No. 24 USF Bulls

No. 25 Cincinnati Bearcats

This story was originally published November 11, 2025 at 7:17 PM.

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