Miami, the underdog in the CFP, accepts the role and competes with Indiana
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — No. 10 Miami will face No. 1 Indiana in the national championship Monday night on its home court, yet the Hurricanes are an 8.5-point underdog — a role defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. plays. he said it’s been “Miami’s story throughout the playoffs.”
You are right.
Miami entered the season 25-1 to win the national championship and was 100-1 the morning the College Football Playoff bracket was revealed, as the Hurricanes were underdogs to make the playoffs. Now, ESPN Analytics gives the Hoosiers a 68.3% chance to win at Hard Rock Stadium, where Miami will become the first team to play for a national title on its home field since the championship game became an annual event in 1998 with the inception of the BCS.
“I feel like this has been our whole journey, our whole playoff story,” Bain said. “We like it when no one believes in us.”
The Hurricanes are 13-1 over the past two seasons at Hard Rock Stadium, with the only loss coming to Louisville this season. After the loss of Nov. 1 to SMU, Miami is ranked 18th in CFP’s preliminary rankings. That would be the lowest national championship ever in CFP first teams.
Defensive end Akheem Mesidor said the only goal is to prove Miami is the best team in the country.
“I’ve been an underdog my whole life, so being down in this last game — being down in every game we’ve played in the playoffs — doesn’t mean anything to me,” Mesidor said. “It might blow me up a bit, but at the end of the day, I want to play football and show that we are the best team in the nation.”
Quarterback Carson Beck agreed and said “none of this matters.”
“Throughout this season we have talked about the fact that the people in this locker room are the most important,” he said. “Our coaches, our teammates, these fans – everyone who has supported you, supported us, believed in us – that’s what matters at the end of the day.”
Because Indiana is the higher seed, Miami will be the visiting team and wear its white uniforms. The Hurricanes will also be on the north side, turned away from their usual home field. They will still use their common locker room, however, which is the Dolphins’ guest locker room.
“I’m sure some of the guys might get confused and start running in the other direction,” Beck said with a laugh. “But at the end of the day, once you step on the lines, in the middle of the field, the end zone is the same size, the same 100 yards, and it’s going to come down to execution.”
Although Miami will aim to prove that it is the best team in the country, the Hurricanes did not get a chance to win their conference due to the breakaway of the ACC. That’s something Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich said he expects will change this spring. Conference leaders have not yet begun discussions on what that might look like, although some sources said there is a desire for the Power 4 conferences to use a similar system.
“We have to change our ACC players,” Radakovich said. “I’m sure we’ll talk about it [at the winter league meetings]. It probably won’t be approved until the spring meetings, but I think we’ll have a new banning program in the ACC in 2026. “
