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The Miami football team finished the regular season at 10-2 with wins over the likes of Notre Dame and Florida. It will not, however, play for an ACC Championship.
The Hurricanes are on the outside looking in due to tiebreaker scenarios. One writer believes the league should adjust the rules to put UM in.
As it stands, Duke and Virginia will play for the title. It represents a potential doomsday scenario with major postseason implications.
Duke is currently 7-5 and unranked. A win does not guarantee the Blue Devils a spot in the playoff field. It creates the possibility for the league as a whole to get left out of the 12-team event.
That would cost the conference both visibility and a paycheck.
On the flip side, Miami is the ACC’s top national title contender. It’s shown the ability to go head-to-head with the nation’s top teams.
The Hurricanes currently sit at No. 12 in the College Football Playoff ranking. With conference tie-ins taking up automatic bids, they could be on the outside looking in when the selection process wraps up.
Will Miami be left out of the College Football Playoff?
The five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams will earn a spot in the 12-team bracket. There is no limit to how many teams from one conference can qualify.
What does that mean for the Hurricanes?
Five teams will get automatic bids. Based on the current rankings, the conference champions in the SEC, Big 10, and Big 12 will get a spot. Virginia would take another spot with a win while Tulane is currently slotted to be the Group of Five representative (North Texas could nab that spot with a win over the Green Wave in the AAC title).
Duke may or may not be able to get in with a win. There is a possibility another G5 champ leapfrogs instead – possibly James Madison that’s ranked 19th in the AP Poll.
In either case, five spots would already be accounted for. That would leave seven spots for at-large bids. Miami likely needs to slide into the Top 10 of the final rankings to have a chance at securing one of those slots.
If the season ended today, the Hurricanes would be on the outside looking in. Luckily for them, it does not. Unfortunately, they will not have a chance to better their positioning with an ACC title win.
Should the rules be changed?
Nicole Auerbach of NBC believes that should change. She suggested the league force Miami into the championship regardless of previously established protocol.
This might be an unpopular take … but if I’m the ACC and Cal upsets SMU, I override the tiebreakers and put Miami in the ACC championship game against Virginia.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) November 30, 2025
She is not alone, and there is precedent – sort of.
Just pretend it’s COVID and do what the Big Ten did https://t.co/wZZ0If1A61
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) November 30, 2025
The Big Ten changed its rule to allow Ohio State a title opportunity in 2020. There were extenuating circumstances given the COVID pandemic.
In that instance, the Buckeyes did boast the league’s best winning percentage. Game cancellations, however, did not allow them to achieve the six-game minimum requirement to be eligible for the championship.
The Big Ten dropped the rule, allowing Ohio State to replace Indiana. It provided the Buckeyes a playoff path.
There are no outside forces in Miami’s case. While it finished in a five-way tie with the Blue Devils for the No. 2 spot, it lost out on the tiebreaker scenarios.
If 3 or more teams tie:
a. Combined head-to-head win-percentage among the tied teams if all tied teams are common opponents.
b. If all tied teams are not common opponents, the tied team that defeated each of the other tied teams.
(i.)If all tied teams are not common opponents and no tied team defeated each of the other tied teams, but a tied team lost to each of the other tied teams, such team shall be eliminated and removed from the tie.
c. Win-percentage against all common opponents.
d. Win-percentage against common opponents based upon their order of finish (overall conference win-
percentage, with ties broken) and proceeding through other common opponents based upon their order of
finish.
e. Combined win-percentage of conference opponents.
f. The tied team with the highest ranking by the Team Rating Score metric provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of regular season games.
g. The participant shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or Commissioner’s
designee.
Duke needed three things to happen in order to secure its spot. They did thanks to Cal’s upset of SMU on the final week of the regular season and UVA’s rivalry victory over Virginia Tech. They got the nod thanks to the fifth tiebreaker scenario – combined win percentage of conference opponents.
That domino effect could result in Miami’s absence from the College Football Playoff, which would make twice in two years the 10-2 Hurricanes are omitted.