Hurricanes on the outside looking in at playoffs in first College Football Playoff rankings

If the season ended today, the Miami Hurricanes would miss the College Football Playoff.

Fortunately for Miami, the season does not end today. But UM currently ranks 18th in the first College Football Playoff rankings, which were released Tuesday night.

Mack Rhoades, the Chair of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, said the committee “felt strongly” about where it put UM.

“And I think we all believe Miami’s got a talented team when you look at their roster, their roster composition,” Rhoades said “Certainly think they’re really good defensively. I think if they can maybe correct some of the woes that they’ve had just in terms of turnovers and certainly, on the offensive side of the ball that they can certainly have an opportunity to win games. I think for Miami — I’m just going to say it — for Miami it’s about consistency and their lack of consistency, and we just need to see more consistency out of Miami headed down the stretch.”

The Hurricanes, who are No. 18 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll this week, also trail No. 10 Notre Dame, which could be a key competitor for an at-large bid even though Miami beat the Fighting Irish in the first week of the season.

“Head to head really matters when the teams are comparable at the margins,” Rhoades said.

“We look at that really, really closely. And again, I think back to Notre Dame, the committee felt strongly that that is a team that when you look at Week 1 to now, a team that has improved, has gotten better. Particularly when we think about defensively. We talked about the running game, and what I didn’t talk about is, you know, the quarterback play of (C.J.) Carr. As a freshman, he’s just been really, really good. Throws a great deep ball and has been really consistent for them at that spot. Again to the point of that team is getting better — Notre Dame (has) six straight wins.”

Rhoades said that Miami’s struggles on offense in losses against Louisville and SMU dinged the Hurricanes in the eyes of the committee.

Miami, which ended last season ranked 13th and missed the playoffs, needs to win the remainder of its games to have any chance of making the playoffs. The Hurricanes face Syracuse at home on Saturday, then N.C. State at home before traveling to Virginia Tech and No. 24 Pittsburgh to end the season.

UM’s chances of making the tournament are slim. The Athletic’s playoff model currently gives the Hurricanes a 15 percent chance to make it, and ESPN’s FPI model gives Miami slightly more than a 14 percent chance.

Here is the complete CFP top 25:

1. Ohio State

2. Indiana

3. Texas A&M

4. Alabama

5. Georgia

6. Ole Miss

7. BYU

8. Texas Tech

9. Oregon

10. Notre Dame

11. Texas

12. Oklahoma

13. Utah

14. Virginia

15. Louisville

16. Vanderbilt

17. Georgia Tech

18. Miami

19. USC

20. Iowa

21. Michigan

22. Missouri

23. Washington

24. Pittsburgh

25. Tennessee