The Miami Hurricanes’ College Football Playoff fate may have been sealed on Tuesday as they were not among the teams slotted in the penultimate bracket before conference championship weekend.
Miami’s upset loss to the Syracuse Orange had a lot to do with that. The Hurricanes blew a 21-0 lead to eventually lose, 42-38. It was Miami’s second loss in three games, with the other coming against Georgia Tech.
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The selection committee listed Miami as the first team on the outside looking in. The three-loss Alabama Crimson Tide was placed in the 11th spot of the bracket. Alabama lost to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma this season.
The ACC may only see one team in the playoffs when all is said and done. SMU was ranked No. 3 in the bracket but may fall out if they lose the conference title game against Clemson. Conference commissioner Jim Phillips said it was disappointing to see Miami go from No. 6 to No. 12.
"Miami has more wins and fewer losses than the team director ahead of them and a dominant victory over an SEC team whose late-season surge includes a win over No. 13 Ole Miss," Phillips said in a statement. "Moreover, with two losses by a combined nine points – to a ranked Syracuse team and a Georgia Tech team that just took No. 5 Georgia to eight overtimes – Miami absolutely deserves better from the Committee.
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"As we look ahead to the final rankings, we hope the Committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field. We will continue to look forward to this weekend, when Clemson and SMU have an opportunity to earn an ACC championship and represent the conference n the CFP."
Warde Manuel, the CFP selection committee chair, explained on ESPN why Alabama got the edge over Miami.
"What it came down to is as we evaluated both teams and looked at how they rank, obviously we think highly of both teams," he said, via On3 Sports. "One’s at 11, one’s at 12. But what it really came down to is Alabama is 3-1 against current top 25 teams and Miami is 0-1. Alabama is 6-1 against teams above .500 and Miami’s 4-2. Both have had some losses that weren’t what they wanted out of those games. But in the last three games, Miami has lost twice."
However, Manuel said things could still change depending on how the conference championships play out.
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