The Miami Hurricanes did their part to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff last Saturday, waxing the Pittsburgh Panthers 38-7 to conclude a 10-2 regular season.

However, thanks to the ACC’s wacky tiebreaker rules and extremely imbalanced schedules, the Hurricanes find themselves left out of the conference’s championship game in favor of 7-5 Duke.

That leaves Miami in the position of needing to secure an at-large berth to make the field. Unfortunately for them, the selection committee has shown they prefer Notre Dame, Alabama, and BYU all over the Canes up until this point, even with the head-to-head edge on the Irish by virtue of a 27-24 win back on August 31. And it doesn’t seem likely the committee makes a major shakeup on Tuesday night to change things now.

However, there still might be a shred of hope for Miami fans looking for a way in. According to ESPN college football insider Heather Dinich, there is a world where Alabama and BYU could potentially miss the field with a loss in their conference championship games this weekend.

ESPN’s Heather Dinich says losses by Alabama and BYU on Saturday could ‘open the door’ for Miami to possibly make it into the field

This is what Dinich had to say about Miami’s circumstances:

“The Hurricanes will still be the committee’s highest-ranked ACC team on Tuesday night, but they would be excluded if the playoff were today to make room for a conference champion. That means the ACC winner could knock the league’s best team out of the playoff. The committee isn’t ignoring the Miami’s head-to-head win against Notre Dame, but it also isn’t comparing the Canes only to the Irish. Miami also needs to earn an edge against Alabama and BYU — two teams the committee has deemed better than Miami to this point. If both of those teams lose their respective conference championship games, it would open the door for Miami to possibly enter the 12-team field with Notre Dame.” – Via Heather Dinich, ESPN.com

It’s an interesting situation because Alabama has already beaten Georgia and technically comes in as the SEC’s top-ranked team in the standings despite the 10-2 record. However, Miami and Alabama have a common opponent – 5-7 Florida State. Miami controlled that game in Tallahassee, up 28-3 in the fourth quarter before winning 28-22. Alabama was thoroughly dominated in a 31-17 loss on that same field. So, a leap over Alabama based on a loss to Georgia on Saturday and utilizing one of the committee’s own stated criteria – common opponents – shouldn’t be out of the question.

A second loss by BYU to Texas Tech – especially if it’s decisive for a second time – could also shut the door on the Cougars, as they have a good win (24-21 over Utah) and a decent one over Arizona, but none inside the top 10.

We’ll find out soon enough, as the committee will reveal their next to last set of rankings on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm ET on ESPN.

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