Miami is 8-0 and No. 1 in the first CFP rankings of the year, the first time the Hurricanes have ever held that spot in the College Football Playoff era’s opening poll. The phone buzzed all night.
What it means for you: a top-four seed earns a first-round bye. Miami, Georgia, Utah and Indiana would skip the opening weekend and wait for their first game. Everyone else has to win an extra game just to reach the quarterfinals.
The selection committee released its Top 25 Tuesday night, covering games through Saturday. Miami sits ahead of Georgia (7-1), Utah (8-0) and Indiana (8-1). If you want to know how the sausage gets made, here is how the CFP top 25 is built.
The rest of the CFP top 25
Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, UCLA, BYU, Ole Miss, Notre Dame and Ohio State round out the top 12. The first-round games would include Boise State at Alabama and BYU at UCLA, according to ESPN. That is a bracket nobody had on their card in August.
Miami vs. the SEC: the scoreboard
So who comes out ahead? On the page, Miami does. In the room, the SEC does.
The league has 10 of the 25 spots and five of the top 10 in the playoff rankings, CBS Sports reports. Georgia is No. 2. Alabama is fifth, Kentucky sixth and Ole Miss tenth.
Kentucky is the real eyebrow-raiser. At 7-1, the Wildcats sit sixth, outside the top four. They are the SEC’s surprise, not a team that cracked the top four.
The committee has not explained that slot, so don’t believe anyone who tells you they know exactly why.
Miami, meanwhile, has played one ranked opponent so far, Wake Forest. It has one top-25 game left on the schedule, and that game is Saturday.
The cracks in the No. 1 seed
Miami’s defense is the part nobody wants to say out loud. ESPN notes the Hurricanes gave up 850 yards over their last two games. They rank 122nd in the FBS in pass defense, at 252 yards per game. Most teams in the country allow far fewer through the air.
Winning all eight games is the job. Giving up that kind of yardage while doing it is a flashing yellow light.
Miami was not even in the committee’s top 10 until the final rankings last season, so this is quite a jump. For more on how the Hurricanes got here, see our look at Miami grabbing No. 1.
Who wins and loses in the CFP top 25
The winners are obvious. Miami, Georgia, Utah and Indiana would get byes in the 12-team format. Every other team has to win an extra game to play for the title.
The losers are the teams sitting right on the bubble. In the 12-team era, no team ranked outside the top 18 in the first rankings has made the final bracket. That is bad news for Florida, Oregon, Arizona and South Carolina.
And the little guys? Only two of the 25 teams come from outside the Power Four: Notre Dame (independent) and Boise State (Mountain West). Boise State is No. 25 and the only Group of Five team in the poll.
Utah, BYU, UCLA, Houston, Texas Tech and Arizona are Big 12 or Big Ten schools, so they do not count toward that number.
What the next CFP rankings will bring
Saturday is the test. Miami visits No. 11 Notre Dame in South Bend, its one remaining top-25 game. Several SEC games with playoff stakes land the same day, per CBS.
The next CFP rankings come out Tuesday, Nov. 10, at about 9 p.m. ET. The committee will release six in all, and the final field is set Sunday, Dec. 6. Chair Hunter Yurachek told reporters to expect “a significant amount of movement.”
Miami can enjoy No. 1 for a week. It is November, and the committee’s favorite word is “yet.”
