ESPN lead studio analyst Booger McFarland continued to state Miami should be in the College Football Playoff over Notre Dame during the penultimate rankings reveal on Tuesday night. Notre Dame is 10th and Miami is 11th in the CFP rankings released on Tuesday
Miami is on the CFP bubble for the second consecutive season. The Hurricanes are about to become the Maxwell Smart of the CFP. "Missed it by that Much." Miami finished 13th in the final 2025 CFP rankings. The cutoff for an at-large berth in 2025 was 10th.
ACC runner-up SMU earned the final at-large berth in 2024 as the 10th-ranked team nationally. The 2025 cutline appears to also be 10th. Notre Dame is currently 10th. BYU is 11th but has a chance to play its way into the CFP field with a win in the Big XII Championship Game on Saturday.
If BYU wins, the cut line will move higher. Notre Dame and Miami could both miss the CFP if BYU beats Texas Tech in the Big XII Championship Game. Texas Tech is 11-1 and playing for a bye in the first round of the CFP if they win the Big XII Championship.
"Miami and Mario Cristobal must be thinking, here we go again...We went 10-2 and we're going to get left out, especially with the win over Notre Dame, who everyone loves, including the committee. I still think at some point they're going to do the right thing. If Notre Dame is up for a Playoff spot, Miami should be over them based on what happened on the field.""Booger McFarland, ESPN
Revisiting the Miami win over Notre Dame
Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24 in the season opener. Notre Dame rallied from a 21-7 deficit after three quarters to tie Miami at 24 on a field goal with 3:21 remaining. Carter Davis kicked a 47-yard field goal for Miami with 1:04 remaining to give Miami the win.
Alabama, 10-2 and ranked ninth in the CFP, plays 11-1, third-ranked Georgia in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday. Notre Dame has to hope for losses by Alabama and BYU to be firmly in the CFP. That's if the Cougars and Crimson Tide are penalized for losses in the conference title games.
Miami has to hope that Alabama and BYU suffer blowout losses and that the committee penalizes them in the final rankings on Sunday. The CFP bracket is released at noon on Sunday on ESPN. Two conference champions ranked behind Miami will earn a CFP berth.
December 2️⃣ College Football Playoff Selection Committee Rankings
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 3, 2025
1️⃣2️⃣. Miami (FL) // @CanesFootball#CFBPlayoff 🏈🏆 pic.twitter.com/5OxpxxEdR8
Seventeenth-ranked, 10-2 Virginia plays unranked 7-5 Duke in the ACC Championship Game. Twentieth-ranked, 10-2 Tulane hosts 11-1, number 24 North Texas in the American Athletic Conference title game. James Madison is in the rankings for the first time at 24 with an 11-1 record.
If Duke defeats Virginia in the ACC Championship Game and James Madison defeats 8-4 Troy in the Sun Belt title game on Friday night, the ACC could be completely shut out of the CFP. Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich wants the ACC tiebreakers to change.
The committee has given credit to Notre Dame for winning 10 consecutive games to finish the season, despite their win over 17th-ranked USC, their only one over a team in the top 25. Miami has answered the committee's call for Miami to be more consistent. The Hurricanes outscored their last four opponents 151-41.