Greg McElroy puts faith in Miami Hurricanes to win a game in playoffs

Greg McElroy just put real faith in Miami’s ceiling — not only slotting the Hurricanes into his 12-team College Football Playoff, but projecting them to win a first-round road game and reach the quarterfinals. On his "Always College Football" bracket reveal, McElroy seeded Miami No. 10 and picked the Canes to upset No. 7 Oregon before falling to No. 2 Clemson in an all-ACC quarterfinal. He also has Notre Dame advancing out of the first round, which would make the Sunday opener in Miami Gardens an early showcase for two teams he believes will be playing well into the postseason.

The bracket lays out his full playoff prediction: Penn State (1), Clemson (2), Ohio State (3) and Texas (4) earn byes. The first round picks are Notre Dame (5) over Liberty (12), Alabama (6) over USC (11), Miami (10) over Oregon (7) and Georgia (8) over Utah (9). From there, McElroy keeps it mostly chalk, with Clemson eliminating Miami in the quarterfinals and Texas ultimately beating Clemson for the national title. He has Clemson beating Miami in the ACC Championship Game as well, which gives Canes fans two ways of looking at things.

For one thing, McElroy clearly respects Clemson as he has them in the national championship game and defeating a playoff team twice in the same year. McElroy also leaves LSU and South Carolina out of the 12-team playoff so it could be safe to assume that he believes Clemson — being ranked No. 2 — defeated those two fringe playoff teams as well (among others). This kind of thinking would lower the "sting" of his picks for Miami fans (because it's obviously a little disheartening that he has them losing multiple times to Clemson).

The other way of looking at it is through the lens of disrespect. While Miami is good enough to beat Oregon on the road in Round 1, they still can't get over the hump against a conference foe that they already played before during the season? I'd imagine that would be a frustrating way to end the year despite all of the positives that would come from making the program's first playoff appearance and getting their first win.

However you look at it, Miami now is less than a week away from putting the world on notice in their season opener against Notre Dame on Aug. 31 — that's what really matters.