Miami’s still in top 10 of new CFP rankings, keeping Canes on track for New Year’s 6 bowl

The Miami Hurricanes are out of the Atlantic Coast Conference title race, but the latest batch of College Football Playoff rankings provided an important reminder of everything Miami still has to play for in the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Hurricanes are still in the top 10 of the CFP rankings after their 48-0 rout of the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday, staying at No. 10 for the third straight week to remain on track to qualify for a New Year’s Six bowl game if they keep winning in December.

Miami, which is No. 9 in the AP Poll, was No. 10 last Tuesday and also No. 10 in the initial batch of rankings released last month. The 13-member CFP committee will update the rankings one more time next Tuesday before announcing the field for the four-team Playoff on Dec. 20 after the conclusion of conference championship games.

The CFP, which begins with a pair of semifinals on New Year’s Day, concludes next month at Hard Rock Stadium with the 2021 CFP National Championship. This week, the top four remains unchanged for the second straight week with the Alabama Crimson Tide at No. 1, Notre Dame Fighting Irish at No. 2, Clemson Tigers at No. 3 and Ohio State Buckeyes at No. 4.

The same nine teams make up the top nine this week, with some slight changes. The Texas A&M Aggies are No. 5, the Florida Gators are No. 6, Iowa State Cyclones are No. 7, Cincinnati Bearcats are No. 8 and Georgia Bulldogs are No. 9. Iowa State, which has two losses, moved up two spots from No. 9 to No. 7 after a 42-6 win against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday, moving Cincinnati and Georgia both down one spot.

While Miami is eliminated from ACC championship contention after Clemson’s 45-10 win against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday, the Hurricanes (8-1, 7-1) could potentially assure themselves a spot in the 2021 Orange Bowl in the coming weeks. Miami hosts the No. 20 North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday and can clinch third place in the ACC with a victory.

If the Tigers then beat Notre Dame in the 2020 ACC Championship Game on Dec. 19 in Charlotte, the CFP committee will likely place both teams in the top four, leaving the Hurricanes as the ACC’s top-ranked non-Playoff team and the league’s representative in the Orange Bowl.

The Orange Bowl pits an ACC team against a team from either the Southeastern Conference or Big Ten Conference. A potential meeting between Miami and Florida next month remains firmly in play with both teams on track to make New Year’s Six games.

Even if the Fighting Irish win iothe ACC Championship and knock Clemson down to the Orange Bowl, the Hurricanes would be well positioned to make another New Year’s Six game if they close out the regular season with two more wins. They finish the season Dec. 19 against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Miami Gardens.

The other three non-semifinal New Year’s Six bowls — the 2021 Peach Bowl, 2021 Fiesta Bowl and Cotton Bowl Classic — do not have any conference-specific tie-ins, meaning the bowls can choose teams from any conference, so long as the champions from each of the Power 5 conferences, plus the top-ranked team from Group of 5 conferences, are somewhere in the New Year’s Six.