Miami moves up 2 spots in College Football Playoff rankings

Miami moved up from eighth to sixth in the College Football Playoff rankings released on Tuesday. Losses by Alabama, Mississippi and Texas A&M in the SEC allowed Miami to move up with the final week of the regular season this weekend. Miami has put itself in a position to almost guarantee a CFP berth with a win over Syracuse on Saturday.

Miami needs to win on Saturday at Syracuse to earn a berth in the ACC Championship Game on December 7 in Charlotte. SMU who is 10-1 overall with their only loss to BYU and 7-0 in the ACC clinched a berth in the Conference Championship game with a win at Virginia last week.

Clemson and SMU also moved up in the week 14 CFP rankings. Miami would be the third seed and have a bye in the first round. Indiana is the 11th seed and would play sixth-seeded Penn State with the winner playing Miami in the Peach Bowl. If Miami won the Peach Bowl they would play in the Orange Bowl Semifinal.

Clemson is 12th in the rankings but would currently be the last team out. SMU is ranked 10th and would play in the first round at seventh-seeded Notre Dame. Maimi is in the same half of the bracket as second-seeded Texas. Texas would play the winner of SMU at Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

The ACC could potentially get three teams in the CFP. Clemson needs one of the at-large teams currently projected ahead of them in the CFP to lose. Ohio State plays Michigan this weekend, Penn State hosts Maryland, Georgia Tech is at Georgia, Notre Dame plays USC, Tennessee is at Vanderbilt and Indiana plays Purdue.

Miami is in a great position heading into the final weekend and potential conference championship game. As stated earlier Miami is almost in a win at Syracuse and practically assures themselves of a CFP berth or lose and they are out. Syracuse is the biggest Miami football game since at least 2017 and maybe longer.