CFB great hypes up Miami in the best way possible, despite playoff uncertainty

One of the handful of teams to monitor with great intrigue heading into Selection Sunday has to be the Miami Hurricanes. They are 10-2 on the year with quality wins over Notre Dame, South Florida, and Pittsburgh, but have two less-than-stellar losses on their resume to Louisville and SMU. Miami has been above the cut line recently, but it will not be playing in the ACC title bout. Will they make it?

Leave it up to former Georgia star quarterback Aaron Murray to offer his two cents on the situation.

"I would not want to play Miami in the playoffs."

Throwing playoff prerequisites out of the equation, Murray is not wrong in his claim about Miami here.

If we had to remove the five highest-ranked conference champions qualifier, Miami might be comfortably in the field. This is the most talented team in the ACC, but it will not be playing for a league championship. Miami would slaughter Duke, and would probably handle Virginia, but that is neither here nor there... Regardless, this is not a team anyone would want to face in the first round.

Let's unpack why Murray's comments on the Miami situation ring true, despite Carson Beck-UGA ties.

Aaron Murray makes a succinct case to have Miami Hurricanes in the CFP

Even though he shares the same alma mater as the current Miami starting quarterback in Beck, Murray also played on a team that was good enough to play for a national title, but it did not get the opportunity. His 2012 Georgia team lost the SEC Championship in the final seconds to Alabama. Whoever won in Atlanta on that December evening was going to throttle Notre Dame. Alabama did...

2012 was one of the four critical seasons that played a part in the College Football Playoff coming into existence. 2004 Auburn, 2007 as a whole, 2011 Oklahoma State and 2012 Georgia all served as inflection points of how outdated the BCS was. Now that the playoff has since expanded from four to 12 teams, Miami is arguably one of the best 12 teams in college football. They have a real case here.

Overall, Miami is going to need some help to make the playoff. It needs Texas Tech to destroy BYU in the Big 12 Championship, probably for Georgia to the do the same to Alabama in the SEC title bout. From there, it likely needs the Selection Committee to change its tune on Notre Dame, as well as Virginia to beat Duke, in all honesty. Sadly, the SMU loss, who then lost to Cal, as did Louisville, hurts.

For now, Miami is likely to be among the first four out of the 12-team playoff in back-to-back seasons.