Miami football moves up in new CFP rankings but there's a catch

Miami passed Utah to move up to 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night. The Hurricanes likely need to move up to 10th to earn a CFP berth. The ACC Champion and the best Group of Five program are guaranteed CFP berths ahead of Miami.

Miami needs chaos and major help this weekend to earn an ACC Championship Game berth. Georgia Tech has completed its ACC schedule with a 6-2 record. The Bulldogs play their annual non-conference rivalry game against Georgia on Friday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Other key games that will have an impact on Miami's quest for an ACC Championship Game berth are Duke (5-2 ACC) at Wake Forest, Virginia Tech at Virginia (6-1) and SMU (6-1) at California. Miami needs SMU and Virginia to lose, or they will be eliminated from ACC Championship contention just for starters.

Miami passed Utah after they won 34-17 at Virginia Tech and the Utes beat Kansas State 51-47, but allowed 472 rushing yards. BYU is 11th and Alabama 10th between Miami and ninth-ranked Notre Dame in the CFP rankings. The committee initially said that they could consider Miami's win over Notre Dame when they were three places apart in the rankings.

Week 14 games that will impact Miami

Miami needs help to reach the ACC Championship Game and earn an automatic CFP berth or via loss by one of the two-loss teams in front of them. Notre Dame concludes its regular season at Stanford, Alabama is at Auburn and BYU hosts Central Florida on Saturday. Alabama and BYU clinch conference championship game berths with wins.

While it looks good for Miami being inside the top 12 of the CFP rankings, they need teams in front of them to lose to earn a CFB berth. As Mario Cristobal said during his weekly press conference on Monday, it starts with Miami going 1-0 versus Pittsburgh on Saturday. If Miami loses at Pittsburgh, the other scenarios are irrelevant.