The No. 10 Miami Hurricanes are set to take on the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff.
Miami is coming off a massive playoff debut, pulling off a 10-3 upset win over No. 7 Texas A&M in the first round. The Hurricanes were powered by running back Mark Fletcher, who rushed for 172 yards on 17 carries. Still, it was talented freshman Malachi Toney — widely viewed as the team’s offensive MVP this season — who scored the game’s lone touchdown late in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Now, Miami once again finds itself in the underdog role heading into the Cotton Bowl, with Ohio State listed as a 9.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel.
The Hurricanes will gladly accept those odds. Even making the College Football Playoff felt unlikely late in the season, yet Miami now sits on the doorstep of its biggest game in more than two decades. The matchup also serves as a rematch of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl national championship game.
But the path Miami took to get here was anything but traditional.
Did The Miami Hurricanes Win The ACC In 2025?
Miami took an unconventional route to this year’s playoff, as the Hurricanes did not play in the ACC Championship Game. Instead, Duke and No. 19 Virginia competed for the conference title, with the Blue Devils pulling off a surprising 27-20 win.
So why wasn’t Miami in the ACC Championship?
The Hurricanes finished the regular season 10-2, with conference losses to Louisville and SMU. However, Duke won the tiebreaker due to a complex multi-team ACC formula that favored the Blue Devils based on their conference opponents’ combined winning percentage, despite their own 7-5 record.
Despite winning the ACC, Duke remained unranked in the final College Football Playoff rankings and was left out of the 12-team field.
Miami has yet to reach the ACC Championship Game under head coach Mario Cristobal in four seasons. The Hurricanes have appeared in the title game only once since joining the conference in 2004, losing 38-3 to Clemson in 2017. They are still seeking their first ACC championship.
How Did The Miami Hurricanes Make The College Football Playoff?
Miami earned its first-ever College Football Playoff berth despite spending much of the second half of the season on the outside looking in.
The Hurricanes fell as low as No. 18 in the Week 11 rankings after dropping to 6-2 following a road loss to SMU. From there, Miami steadily climbed back into contention with dominant wins over Syracuse, NC State, Virginia Tech and No. 22 Pitt.
By the Week 14 rankings, Miami had risen to No. 12, but its path remained complicated. The Hurricanes still needed help — either from chaos within the ACC or movement among teams ranked ahead of them.
Those teams included No. 11 BYU, No. 10 Alabama and No. 9 Notre Dame. Debate intensified around Notre Dame’s ranking, as the Fighting Irish shared the same 9-2 record as Miami despite losing to the Hurricanes 27-24 in Week 1.
In Week 15, Alabama jumped to No. 9 after beating Auburn 27-20 on the road, while Notre Dame dropped to No. 10 despite a convincing 49-20 road win over Stanford.
When the final selection show arrived on December 7, the debate centered on which team would be left out between Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame. Both Miami and Notre Dame sat idle, while Alabama and BYU played in their respective conference championship games — and both lost.
BYU was penalized for suffering its second loss to Texas Tech, while Alabama’s lopsided defeat to Georgia did not knock the Crimson Tide out of position. Alabama stayed at No. 9, BYU fell to No. 12, and the buffer between Miami and Notre Dame disappeared.
That’s when the committee finally leaned on head-to-head results, elevating Miami above Notre Dame based on their Week 1 victory and securing the Hurricanes a long-awaited spot in the College Football Playoff.
Did Miami Win the ACC Conference? How the Hurricanes Made the CFB Playoff