Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway discuss Miami's difficult path to reaching College Football Playoff

For now, Miami is in the College Football Playoff. The Hurricanes came in ranked No. 13 in the recent CFP rankings, claiming the automatic bid as the highest ranked ACC team and assumed conference champion.

But in reality, Miami’s odds of making the ACC Championship are very small. The Hurricanes currently sit in fifth place in the conference standings with two losses and would need a miracle to take place to reach the title game.

In the aftermath of the rankings announcement, Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway joined each other for a discussion. They debated the chances of Miami still making the playoff, saying while the chance still exists, a lot needs to go wrong for the teams currently in front of them.

“I know everybody was talking about Notre Dame and Miami,” Hersbtreit said. “I said I really want to see where Alabama and Miami are because I think Notre Dame’s gonna be in. I don’t think it’s gonna end up being a Notre Dame-Miami discussion. I think both of those teams potentially get in. I don’t know if Miami’s gonna get close enough without a conference championship game for them to be in that cluster for them to be able to say, ‘We beat you head-to-head.’ But why not have both potentially? If Miami finishes strong, why wouldn’t the Canes potentially get in there as an at large team?”

Notre Dame comes in the College Football Playoff rankings at No. 9 despite losing against Miami in Week 1. In between those two teams sit Alabama, BYU and Utah. A loss from Alabama could potentially open the door for the Hurricanes to slip in as an at-large team.

There’s also still the slight chance they make the ACC Championship. But for that to happen, they’ll be counting on some results this week.

“One thing that Miami should be rooting for is Pitt to knock off Georgia Tech,” Galloway said. “Georgia Tech lost to NC State and then they didn’t look great against Boston College. …Miami absolutely needs, I think they still need some help. I don’t think that they’re safe in that spot. I think they still need some help whether that’s getting into the ACC Championship Game would be terrific for them, or someone ahead of them losing.”

Herbstreit, however, was willing to declare Miami’s ACC title hopes already dead. That being the case, they’ll need to hope they can continue to climb the rankings and potentially put themselves in a position to steal a spot.

“They’re not gonna go to the ACC Championship Game,” he said. “I think Virginia and Georgia Tech are gonna be the two teams and look how far down both Virginia and Georgia Tech are. The winner of that game gets the automatic spot and then that leaves Miami. Right now you have five teams in the top 10 in the SEC. If you have five there and you have a Group of 5 and potentially Notre Dame, that would be seven.

“Unless Miami gets close enough to that cluster and then you could maybe push Notre Dame out. It’s just hard to imagine that happening with where Notre Dame is currently ranked. But if it did, Miami would have the head-to-head. For now, if you look at Notre Dame, that gives you seven. ACC gets one, that’s eight. Big 12 gets one, that’s nine and now you’ve got three left for the Big Ten. Miami’s in a tough spot.”

Unfortunately, two losses against unranked opponents are severely hurting the Hurricanes’ resume. That win against Notre Dame is all they have to hang their hat on at this point, and that might not be enough to cut it.

“Miami fans are holding on with both hands,” Galloway said. “This is the second year in a row Miami has had a chance to finish and they didn’t. The only thing they have left to hold on to is, ‘We won against Notre Dame in Week 1.’ Miami, in their last game, looked like Miami. But they went through that lull there where they lost two out of three games later in the season. That to me wipes out the head-to-head. Close loss for Notre Dame. The losses that you just talked about, two unranked teams, Miami, whereas Notre Dame lost to Texas A&M and Miami. I don’t think that’s comparable.”