During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said, "Miami should be playing in their conference championship." Miami finished the regular season with a 10-2 overall record and 6-2 in a five-way tie for second in the ACC.
Duke won the tiebreaker with Georgia Tech, Miami, Pittsburgh and SMU to earn a berth in the ACC Championship Game against Virginia on Saturday in Charlotte. Miami AD Dan Radakovich told Andrea Adelson of ESPN that the ACC "can get better at tiebreakers" in an interview published this season.
Notre Dame being ranked ahead of Miami in the College Football Playoff rankings has become the polarizing discussion since they were released in early November. Miami has steadily moved up from 18th in the initial 2025 CFP rankings to 12th in the penultimate rankings on Tuesday.
BYU is 11th entering the Big XII Championship Game on Saturday against Texas Tech in Arlington, Texas. Texas Tech is a prohibitive favorite over BYU by any measure. The prevailing projection is that if BYU loses by a big margin to Texas Tech, Miami would move up in the final CFP rankings.
"I think almost everybody believes that the playoff should be at sixteen teams..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 5, 2025
If we were at sixteen teams right now it would be absolutely perfect..
I'm biased but I think we have the best player in the country in Jeremiyah Love" ~ Pete Bevacqua#PMSLive https://t.co/Fn5YCunw3s pic.twitter.com/Xu3QA0F5M2
"You think about Miami...they had two tough losses deep into the season...Miami should be playing in their conference championship for a chance to win that conference, with as talented a team as they are...I think corrections can be made. But as it relates to the CFP, 16 teams is the answer."ND AD Pete Bevacqua on the McAfee Show
Miami losses and common opponents with Notre Dame
The tough Miami losses Bevacqua was referring to were 27-24 to Louisville on October 17 and 26-20 in overtime at SMU on November 1. Miami won its final four games of the 2025 regular season over Syracuse, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh by a combined margin of 151 to 41.
Miami and Notre Dame both played North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Syracuse during the 2025 regular season. Miami beat NC State, Pittsburgh and Stanford by bigger margins than Notre Dame did, plus the Hurricanes defeated the Fighting Irish 27-24 in the season opener on August 31.
The expectation should be that the CFP will be expanded to at least 16 teams in the near future. Per USA Today, the CFP and ESPN "announced on Monday, Nov. 24 they have agreed to extend the deadline to determine the future format from Dec. 1 to Jan. 23, 2026."