Miami football Week 11 rooting guide: Hurricanes fans should be pulling for some hated rivals on Saturday

The Miami Hurricanes are in solid shape after the first College Football Playoff rankings were revealed on Tuesday night.  The Canes checked in at #4 in the rankings and as the #3 seed in the bracket.   As long as Miami takes care of business each week from here on out, they'll claim their first-ever ACC […]

Craig Smith — College Football & NFL Trending News Writer
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Nov 2, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Xavier Restrepo (7) celebrates after a touchdown by wide receiver Jacolby George (not pictured) against the Duke Blue Devils during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium.
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The Miami Hurricanes are in solid shape after the first College Football Playoff rankings were revealed on Tuesday night.  The Canes checked in at #4 in the rankings and as the #3 seed in the bracket.  

As long as Miami takes care of business each week from here on out, they'll claim their first-ever ACC championship and earn a bye and a top 4 seed in the final CFP rankings.  

However, sometimes things don't go to plan.  Teams lose, and therefore an alternate path to the playoff might be necessary.  If the Canes go 12-1 or 11-1, and they get some help along the way, they might still have a path to the playoff as an at large. 

Here are things Miami should be rooting for this weekend. 

  • Clemson at Virginia Tech: Easy. Hokies. Would help Canes' resume while also knocking Clemson out of the ACC title game picture.  
  • FSU at Notre Dame: The longest of odds for the Noles to win, but hey, you can still hope (as ridiculous as that is to say for UM fans about Florida State). Notre Dame losing once more would deal a major blow to their at-large playoff hopes. 
  • The three other undefeated teams in the top 12 – Oregon, Indiana, and BYU – all are playing 4-loss teams. Not likely any lose, but it would help. 
  • Penn State, Tennessee, Ohio State, and Texas all face mediocre to bad teams in Washington, Mississippi State, Purdue, and Florida, respectively. Any upsets there would be helpful for Miami. 
  • Georgia at Ole Miss: Ole Miss winning could potentially result in all of Georgia, Tennessee, and Ole Miss finishing at 10-2 (Tennessee and Georgia play next weekend).  That would give the SEC a lot of at large options, which is not good for UM.  Georgia winning and knocking out teams would be better for the Canes. 
  • Alabama at LSU: Not much difference here, as one team will have 3 losses after this, and both teams have a pretty weak schedule.  Alabama always seems to get more of the benefit of the doubt, so perhaps the Tide losing would be better.  LSU still has to go to Florida (with DJ Lagway's status up in the air) and gets a scrappy Vandy team at home along with Oklahoma.  Miami should hope LSU stems the Tide, then drops one more game later. 

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