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For a start, Miami\u2019s story is a football fairytale.<\/p>\n
Two upset losses appeared to have destroyed their season. They meant that, a bit over a month ago, they were snubbed from their own conference\u2019s championship game – which was then won by a clearly inferior team.<\/p>\n
For weeks it had been unclear whether Miami would even make the 12-team playoff, and they weren\u2019t in the field\u2026 until they were, at the very last moment, on Selection Sunday.<\/p>\n
This was a fallen titan of the sport, who defined almost two decades of it, returning to the upper class for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u2018The U\u2019 was a dominant force in the 1980s and 90s, both culturally and in a footballing sense; but it\u2019s been so long since they were any good. That awesome 30 for 30 doco reminiscing on their glory years came out eight years after their last national title… and it came out 16 years ago.<\/p>\n
At the helm is Mario Cristobal, who has the most Miami story possible – the son of Cuban immigrants who starred for the Hurricanes, and then returned home as coach to help them stop dwelling on the past.<\/p>\n
Carson Beck #11 of the Miami Hurricanes reacts after the game against the Ole Miss Rebels during the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium on January 08, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. The Hurricanes defeated the Rebels 31-27. (Photo by Norm Hall\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The last team into the field, Miami wasn\u2019t supposed to do anything as the No.10 seed – plenty of experts have decried the 12-team format because of the idea there aren\u2019t 12 teams good enough to win the national title every year.<\/p>\n
Turns out that\u2019s nonsense, with Miami winning three straight games including a stunning upset of title favourites Ohio State, and then a thrilling back-and-forth semi final over Ole Miss where Cristobal overcame his arch nemesis – his own terrible in-game decision-making and clock management.<\/p>\n
(This is a coach who lost a game, recently, because instead of kneeling out the clock to ice the game he called a run play… and the defence forced a fumble and quickly scored a game-winning touchdown. He failed the type of test a 10-year-old Madden player can pass.)<\/p>\n
All of this earns Miami an unlikely shot at winning the national title in their home stadium, which just so happens to be hosting the contest. Incredible, right?<\/p>\n
Nobody cares.<\/p>\n
Miami outlast Ole Miss in thriller | 01:17<\/p>\n
OK, maybe not nobody, but Miami is the least interesting, least unexpected and least romantic title game participant. They are not the team for the neutral.<\/p>\n
Because Indiana exists<\/a>.<\/p>\n We can put it pretty simply: the school that entered this season with the most losses in college football history may now have produced the greatest team in college football history.<\/p>\n A typical good season for the Hoosiers in the past would be winning as many games as they lost – something they did just twice between 2008 and 2023.<\/p>\n In a football sense, they were a joke; a non-entity. Now they\u2019re unbeaten and genuinely in contention for the title of best team ever.<\/p>\n While it\u2019ll be hard to match the 2019 LSU team, led by Joe Burrow with Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson as his receivers, the 2025 Hoosiers are similarly dominant and have had to do it one additional time.<\/p>\n This season the Hoosiers have outscored their opponents by 473 points – that\u2019s more than 31 points, or four touchdowns and a field goal, per game.<\/p>\n In the process they\u2019ve gone 15-0. Beating Miami would make them the first team since 1894 to go 16-0 – though admittedly this is mostly because college teams haven\u2019t had the ability to play 16 times in a season until recently.<\/p>\n But having to play 16 games to win a national title only adds to the degree of difficulty. The offence, led by future NFL players like QB Fernando Mendoza and receiver Elijah Sarratt, has scored at least 27 points on 13 occasions – and scored 55 points or more seven times.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the defence has been stifling, allowing 10 points or fewer nine times, including against then-No.1 Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and Alabama in the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n They\u2019re not the typical sporting fairytale. This isn\u2019t a March Madness Cinderella, pulling upset after upset in the college basketball tournament. They\u2019re destroying opponents.<\/p>\n