Miami in CFP rankings. Latest bracket, playoff picture, what to know

• The Miami Hurricanes finished the regular season with a 10-2 record after a four-game winning streak.
• Despite their record, Miami missed the ACC championship game due to conference losses to Louisville and SMU.
• In the latest College Football Playoff rankings, Miami is ranked No. 12, placing them just outside the projected 12-team field.

Miami football can only sit back and watch now. After tonight, there’s just one more update to the College Football Playoff rankings remaining, and the Hurricanes are fresh out of games to improve their résumé.

Malachi Toney and Carson Beck have dazzled over the past month as Miami has gone on a four-game win streak to close the regular season at 10-2. With Rueben Bain, Akheem Mesidor and a terrifying defense at their back, UM outscored its last four opponents by a combined 151-41, wrapping up with a 38-7 throttling of Pittsburgh in the cold. But a pair of conference losses to Louisville and SMU kept the Hurricanes from next week’s ACC championship game; will they also spell a second straight season coming up just short of the CFP bracket?

The Hurricanes have been penciled into the 12-team playoff field as the ACC’s highest-ranked team over the past few weeks. But they’ve been on the wrong end of the conference’s tiebreaker scenarios the whole time, and even their No. 12 ranking in last week’s CFP update was misleading. After all, two automatic berths are guaranteed to conference champions, and BYU would swipe a third if it wins the Big 12 title.

Where does that leave Miami? Mostly furious that Notre Dame, which lost to UM to start the season, has an identical record but sits comfortably ahead of them in the rankings. The Hurricanes will be rooting for Georgia to take care of business in the SEC championship game and not give another automatic bid to a bubble team in Alabama.

Here’s a look at how Miami fared in the Dec. 2 CFP rankings update:

College Football Playoff bracket: Who’s in, who’s out

As it stands right now, there are five SEC teams projected to make the College Football Playoff, along with three Big Ten teams, one from the Big 12, one independent team and two other conference champions.

First-round bye

• No. 1 Ohio State
• No. 2 Indiana
• No. 3 Georgia
• No. 4 Texas Tech

First-round CFP games

• No. 12 Conference Champion No. 5 at No. 5 Oregon
• No. 11 Conference Champion No. 4 at No. 6 Ole Miss
• No. 10 Notre Dame at No. 7 Texas A&M
• No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma

Latest CFP rankings 

Here’s a look at the full College Football Playoff rankings released Dec. 2:

1. Ohio State (12-0)
2. Indiana (12-0)
3. Georgia (11-1)
4. Texas Tech (11-1)
5. Oregon (11-1)
6. Ole Miss (11-1)
7. Texas A&M (11-1)
8. Oklahoma (10-2)
9. Alabama (10-2)
10. Notre Dame (10-2)
11. BYU (11-1)
12. Miami (10-2)
13. Texas (9-3)
14. Vanderbilt (10-2)
15. Utah (10-2)
16. USC (9-3)
17. Virginia (10-2)
18. Arizona (9-3)
19. Michigan (9-3)
20. Tulane (10-2)
21. Houston (9-3)
22. Georgia Tech (9-3)
23. Iowa (8-4)
24. North Texas (11-1)
25. James Madison (11-1)

Miami’s projected CFP opponent 

Right now, Miami is listed as the “second team out” of the 12-team bracket. But with two teams close to them playing in conference title games (No. 10 Alabama and No. 11 BYU), there is still hope for the Hurricanes.

How many teams in College Football Playoff 2025? 

The playoff field expanded to 12 teams in 2024. The five highest-ranked conference champions will earn automatic berths into the field, with the other seven spots filled out by the highest-ranked teams remaining. The big change for the 2025 CFP comes in seeding for the playoffs: Rather than the four first-round byes going to conference champions regardless of their rank, those spots now go to the top four teams in the final rankings.

When next College Football Playoff rankings come out 

The final CFP rankings will be revealed at noon Sunday, Dec. 7 on ESPN.