Rick Neuheisel believes the playoff committee didn't just send a message to Miami with their first rankings, but the entire ACC.
Five ACC teams made the initial list, and the top four were packed in the teens, with Virginia being the highest ranked at 14th and Miami at 18th. The Hurricanes have some impressive victories early in the season. The most notable was a 27-24 win over Notre Dame in Week 1.
Neuheisel said the rankings showed the uphill battle the ACC faces.
"This is tough on the ACC."@CoachNeuheisel thinks the ACC isn't getting the respect it deserves in the latest CFP rankings. pic.twitter.com/UWdzLoTEY1
— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) November 5, 2025
"Jim Phillips is watching this and scratching his head because [the CFP] has devalued the entire conference. Miami is sitting there at 6-2, having beaten Notre Dame, and they find themselves eight spots behind them with the same record," Neuheisel said.
CFP looks at the ACC as a non-factor
The ACC has been viewed as a weakening football conference for years. The struggles of FSU and Clemson don't help with that perception and Miami losing two conference games in three weeks has done more to hurt Miami than help the perception that the conference is competitive and improving.
Last year, the ACC got two teams into the playoffs — SMU and Clemson. Both teams played first-round games on the road and got crushed. SMU lost 38-10 to Penn State and Clemson fell 38-24 at Texas.
While these rankings are year-to-year and the past shouldn't determine the present, the committee is made of humans, and it's human nature to look at past performance as a way to determine what might happen in the present.
By comparison, the Big XII's lone representative last year, Arizona State, lost in a tight double-overtime battle with Texas that raised the profile of that conference. The conference only had three teams in the first ranking, but two are in the top ten (Texas Tech and BYU) and Utah is at No. 13.
Can Miami raise the ACC's profile again?
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips walked into a tough situation left behind by John Swofford that had the conference tied into a TV contract that puts it at a major money disadvantage in comparison to the Big Ten and SEC with very little room to improve those revenue numbers for at least another half decade.
These discrepancies in money led to legal action by some member programs that will see them get an unbalanced share of revenue based on strong TV ratings as they wait to run out the clock before attempting to switch leagues. The settlement should benefit Miami significantly as the Hurricanes have the highest TV ratings in the conference this year.
The more money Miami gets will not only help the program stay competitive on a national level, but it could allow the Hurricanes and the other highly-rated conference programs (FSU and Clemson) a chance to separate themselves from the pack.