The Miami Hurricanes’ aspirations for a College Football Playoff spot suffered a severe blow this past weekend, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum sees eerie parallels to their downfall from the previous season.
During his appearance on SportsCenter on Monday, the veteran commentator labeled the team’s 26-20 defeat in overtime against SMU as far more than just a setback.
He drew direct comparisons to the string of late-year stumbles that shattered Miami’s postseason ambitions in 2024.
“Was it a bad loss? No, it wasn’t a bad loss. It was a disastrous loss,” Finebaum said. “You just can’t do that every November like Miami did. Remember, last year, they lost to Syracuse on the final weekend, and it cost them a bid.”
A year earlier, the Hurricanes stormed out to a perfect 9-0 record but faltered dramatically, suffering defeats against Georgia Tech and Syracuse in their closing trio of regular-season contests. That end-of-year tumble not only kept them out of the ACC title game but also erased any shot at the CFP.
Finebaum warns that the script is flipping in a disturbingly similar fashion this time around.
Miami kicked off the campaign with five straight victories, yet they’ve stumbled in two of their last three outings—a humiliating rout by Louisville followed by the shocking upset on the road against SMU. Sitting at 6-2 on the year and 2-2 within the ACC, the team’s grip on playoff viability is slipping away fast.
According to ESPN’s latest Playoff Predictor model, the Hurricanes hold just a 14% probability of crashing the CFP field, a grim outlook that Finebaum fully endorses.
“They have a path, somehow, if they can win out and have some carnage ahead of them,” he said. “But it’s not a very good path. It looks like another year without Miami in the playoff.”
The squad returns to the gridiron this Saturday, facing off against Syracuse in a crucial matchup. The game tips off at 3:30 p.m. ET, broadcast live on ESPN.
For Miami, it’s a must-win to keep any flickering hopes alive amid a season teetering on the brink.
