During a press conference on Sunday to discuss Miami earning a College Football Playoff berth, Mario Cristobal thanked the media for stating the case for the Hurricanes. Cristobal was busy last week with extensive appearances on local and national shows, stating the case for Miami to earn a CFP berth.
Miami fans had to wait until the final CFP berth was announced before learning the Hurricanes were in the field. Miami is the 10th seed and will play at seventh-seeded Texas A&M on December 20 at noon Eastern Standard Time.
Cristobal told Kris Budden of ESPN before the CFP bracket was released "I feel like I'm in court, defending a case that never should have been brought to court in the first place if we were solely looking at the facts"
Pundits nationally stated that Miami beating Notre Dame in the season opener should matter. Notre Dame lost both of its games against CFP teams (Miami and Texas A&M) to begin the 2025 season. Only one of Notre Dame's 10 consecutive wins to finish the 2025 season was against a team ranked in the CFP (number 17 USC).
"Credit to Cam Gorby (Miami sports information director) all the work he put in his team because they really did a great job at the simplicity of getting those facts to the forefront of the college football world. And you know, really appreciative of...so many people, so many big names...so many TV and media personalities just stating...the facts and the obvious that Miami was deserving...because of what we have done, what we are doing now and of course the head-to-head."Miami head coach Mario Cristobal
The facts Cristobal alluded to are that Miami and Notre Dame were nearly even in metrics that included the extensive analytics of the ESPN Football Power Index. Miami and Notre Dame were within a few spots by nearly every measure in the ESPN FPI.
Notre Dame was only one spot ahead of Miami in strength of record, strength of schedule and game control. Miami controlled the game against Notre Dame. The Hurricanes scored first in the second quarter, never trailed and led 21-7 after three quarters.
Among the big names who stated Miami's win over Notre Dame needed to matter were Paul Feinbaum, former Florida State quarterback E.J. Manuel and Scott VanPelt of ESPN, Colin Cowherd and Chris "The Bear" Fallica of FoxSports and Big Noon Kickoff and Yahoo College Football Senior Writer Dan Wolken.
In the end, the CFP committee chairman, Hunter Yurachek, stated that once Miami and Notre Dame were side by side in the rankings, the Hurricanes' win over the Fighting Irish became the deciding factor on the bracket. BYU losing to Texas Tech for a second time in the Big XII Championship Game moved them down and Miami up.