Miami football barely stays in top half of week 9 ESPN FPI

The Miami football team fell another 12 spots to 57th in the week nine ESPN College Football Power Index. After being projected as the favorite in 11 of its 12 games to begin the season, the ESPN FPI now projects the Miami football team to finish the season with a record of 5.2 wins and 6.8 losses or rounded out to 5-7.

Amazingly Miami is ninth in the ACC and third in the Coastal Division after the 45-21 loss to Duke on Saturday. Duke is 5-3 and moved up seven spots to 59th in the FPI. North Carolina who was off on Saturday dropped two spots to 40th in the FPI. The Tar Heels are the top-ranked team in the ACC Coastal Division.

Pittsburgh who dropped two spots following its loss at Louisville ranks 45th overall. The remaining teams in the Coastal are Virginia who ranks 78th, 89th ranked Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech who Miami defeated last week is 96th. Miami is given a 38.7 percent chance to reach eight wins and become bowl-eligible per the FPI.

Only Virginia, Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech have worse projections to become bowl eligible among ACC teams per the FPI. Clemson is the top-ranked team in the ACC. The Tigers are seventh in the FPI after defeating previously undefeated Syracuse who moved up six spots to 18th.

Miami definitely needs to win the games versus Georgia Tech and Virginia and hope to pull what looks like an upset at this point over either Clemson, Florida State, or Pittsburgh. Miami plays at Clemson and hosts Florida State and Pittsburgh. Clemson has a 99.8 chance to win the Atlantic Division and 82.3 percent to win the ACC.

Miami is projected with a 54.1 percent chance to defeat Virginia, 37.5 against Florida State, 65.2 percent versus Georgia Tech, 8.7 percent versus Clemson and 54.2 percent against Pittsburgh. At this point, it’s tough to rely on those projections when Miami has lost four games this season with a better than 50 percent chance to win.