Miami in the Driver Seat for a College Football Playoff Birth

While Miami has to continue approaching its 8-0 season one game at a time, fans can look ahead at the road to the College Football Playoffs. Miami has four regular season games remaining (none of which are against ranked opponents), and then a potential ACC Championship game before they would find themselves in the new expanded CFP format.

Even though Miami doesn't have a ranked opponent remaining on its schedule, the games the Hurricanes have left are anything but a cakewalk. Miami faces Duke, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, and Syracuse, who are a combined 20-12.

It's a packed ACC schedule against a collective winning record. College football fans know that anything can happen in a four-game conference stretch like that. So that's the road Miami is faced with, but what is the current outlook? According to playoffstatus.com,

Miami's current playoff probability is 79 percent, which is the fifth highest in the nation. If Miami wins out, their CFP probability is 100 percent and that only drops to 99 percent if they lose one of their final games.

Given their tough remaining schedule, it looks like this model is leaving open the possibility that the Canes drop two games down the stretch. The New York Times model has Miami with a 94 percent chance to make the playoffs right now.

The New York Times is projecting Miami to have a 12-0 record and the second-highest probability of making the playoffs. The New York Times also has Miami with the fourth-highest probability of winning its conference championship (49 percent) and the fifth-highest probability of winning the National Championship at six percent.

The only teams with a higher probability of winning the title are Georgia, Oregon, Ohio State, and Texas. FanDuel has Miami as the favorite to win the ACC Title at +110. For the National Championship, Miami currently has the eighth-best odds to win it all at +1600.

Miami currently trails Georgia at +360, Ohio State at +400, Oregon at +450, Texas at +650, Penn State at +1200, Clemson at +1400, and Tennessee at +1400. The bottom line is that the Hurricanes still have plenty of work to do to get to their ultimate goal, bringing home another championship.

Miami will need to battle through four straight conference games and the ACC Title Game as they make their push for a CFP berth. All the CFP models are telling us what we already know, Miami is a good football team and they have their future in their own hands.

Miami's 8-0 start has given them the ability to be positioned to get a high seed in the playoffs which will set the Hurricanes up nicely early on. The Hurricanes remain one of the favorites to win the title and can now show the CFB world that Miami is the best in the Nation. The final Miami push to glory starts this weekend against Duke.