Miami dropped to 14th in the Associated Press Top 25 and USA LBM Coaches poll released on Sunday. The precipitous drop by Miami places two spots below the cutoff line for a College Football Playoff berth. The CFP rankings have been close to aligned with the national polls.
Miami fell six places in the AP Top 25 and seven in the coaches poll. The Hurricanes received 756 points in the AP Top 25. Arizona StateA moved up three spots to 13, one place ahead of Miami with 789 points. Mississippi remained 15th with 717 points after finishing their regular season 9-3.
Miami received 646 points in the US LBM Coaches poll. Arizona State is 13th in the coaches poll with 665 points. Mississippi moved up to 15th from 16th with 638 points in the coaches poll. The 42-38 loss at Syracuse on Saturday dropped Miami to third place in the ACC behind SMU and Clemson and in the national rankings.
SMU finished the regular season 11-1 overall and 8-0 in the ACC. The Mustangs are eighth in the AP Top 25 and seventh in the US LBM coaches poll. Clemson is 18th in the AP Top 25 and 17th in the coaches poll after losing on Saturday versus South Carolina.
POLL ALERT: Ohio State, Miami and Clemson plunge in AP Top 25, 8 of the top 10 teams move up; Oregon is No. 1 for 7th straight week.
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) December 1, 2024
Full poll: https://t.co/7dTTUiSC1j pic.twitter.com/oSJlbmcD6L
The consolation Miami can take from the week 15 polls is that the Hurricanes were eighth in the AP Top 25, seventh in the coaches poll and sixth in the College Football Playoff rankings last week. Miami needs to be ranked 12th to have a chance to get into the CFP as an at-large team.
Miami needs most of the favorites winning conference championship games this week. The Big 10 Championship game will only matter for seeding. Number one Oregon and fourth ranked Penn State are in the CFP. Seventh-ranked Georgia with two losses probably has secured a CFP berth and will play 11-1 and third-ranked Texas for the SEC title.