Hurricanes climb College Football Playoff rankings ahead of season finale

The Miami Hurricanes have one game left in their regular season, and they are in a good position to make their first trip to the College Football Playoff. If they win their regular-season finale against Syracuse and the ACC title game against SMU, they are a lock for a playoff berth and almost certainly assured a first-round bye.

After Indiana and Alabama suffered defeats last weekend, the Hurricanes moved up to No. 6 in Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff ranking. Miami is projected to be the No. 3 seed, which would give them a first-round bye. The Hurricanes would play in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1.

Miami’s potential ACC championship foe, SMU, is ranked ninth.

If the Hurricanes lose to Syracuse, they may have an outside chance at the playoff if certain dominos were to fall their way.

If UM loses, Clemson advances to the conference title game. But if the Tigers lose to rival South Carolina and to SMU, they would not make the playoffs with four losses. The Hurricanes could potentially sneak in with two losses as an at-large team, though it would be an unlikely scenario.

College Football Playoff Selection Committee chair Warde Manuel said the committee values Miami’s performance this year, considering their dominant wins over teams like Florida as well as their ability to come back in other games.

“I think we value both when you win,” Manuel said. “Miami has a dominant win over Florida, then they had a close win in a very good game against Louisville. They found a way to win close games until they played Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech. You look at what they did this past weekend with their win over Wake Forest. (It) reminded the committee of how they played against Florida.

“We value winning with teams. But we do see when teams are playing close games and how they finish and whether they win them or lose them. We do watch that. But we value, ultimately, when the teams do find a way to win. But Miami has done both. They’ve dominated teams, and they’ve had some very close games. Even the loss to Georgia Tech was a close game.”

Here are the complete College Football Playoff rankings entering the final week of the regular season:

1. Oregon

2. Ohio State

3. Texas

4. Penn State

5. Notre Dame

6. Miami

7. Georgia

8. Tennessee

9. SMU

10. Indiana

11. Boise State

12. Clemson

13. Alabama

14. Ole Miss

15. South Carolina

16. Arizona State

17. Tulane

18. Iowa State

19. BYU

20. Texas A&M

21. Missouri

22. UNLV

23. Illinois

24. Kansas State

25. Colorado