Miami Hurricanes’ Mario Cristobal has a strong and clear message College Football Playoff committee ahead of Tuesday’s rankings reveal
The Hurricanes’ head coach hammered home the most important criterion ahead of Tuesday’s penultimate rankings.
The Miami Hurricanes wrapped up their regular season last weekend with an impressive win, throttling #22 Pittsburgh 38-7 on the road to conclude a 10-2 regular season.
Unfortunately for Miami, they won’t get any further chances to try to either impress the committee or punch an automatic ticket into the field as ACC champion, as the Hurricanes lost out on a multi-team tiebreaker to a 7-5 Duke team that went way down on the list of tiebreakers to give the Blue Devils the edge.
So now, with the Canes’ play done, all that’s left is to present arguments to the selection committee, and Miami’s Mario Cristobal did just that on Monday with Ari Wasserman and Andy Staples of On3 Sports.
Mario Cristobal makes argument for Miami’s inclusion into College Football Playoff field
“Again, head-to-head, right? Where is that not at the top of the food chain as it relates to comparing two teams, right? Where is common opponents? Not something that’s secondary to what’s at the top of the food chain. We’ve had a common opponent with number ten, Alabama, in Florida State, which I know they played in week one, which was a very convincing and great victory by Florida State. We had a chance to play them as well. You look at the metrics of our offensive and defensive systems and some of the other guys that are ranked in certain spots. Right now, in every metric imaginable, we’re a top ten team, and in some instances seven, six, five, four.
“So, we have done what we are supposed to do, and on top of that – when it comes down to things that are being compared, you always wish that you had a head-to-head to evaluate, and in this case, we do, which we certainly feel strongly about, and hopefully it’s something that’s viewed very strongly and very carefully, very meticulously as decisions are made.”
The Hurricanes’ 27-24 win appeared back in August to have been a huge feather in the Hurricanes’ cap as it related to any possible tiebreaker scenario come December. And now, both teams sit within the same pool of consideration (9 through 12), and the head-to-head tiebreaker did not give them the benefit of the doubt with the selection committee.
It has in a number of other instances with teams with similar resumes/records – Georgia over Ole Miss and Oklahoma over Alabama to name a couple. But this situation is somehow markedly different for…reasons, I suppose.
Miami is virtually even with Notre Dame in strength of schedule (ND 42, Miami 44), strength of record (ND 13, Miami 14), and ESPN’s overall game efficiency ranks (ND 5, Miami 7). If there are two teams with more similar resumes, I don’t know what they could be.
And as Cristobal said, we have the deciding factor on the field, right there for the committee to evaluate and consider. Miami 27, Notre Dame 24.
Now that the two teams have drawn even closer in eye test and resume, we’ll see on Tuesday if they finally give Miami the edge between the two teams given that they deserve to get.
