U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has weighed in on the College Football Playoff — specifically whether the 10-2 Miami Hurricanes should get a spot over the 10-2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

“If the University of Miami gets screwed out of the College Football Playoff after going 10-2 and beating Notre Dame, the whole thing should be scrapped and you’re going to have to take over it next year,” Rubio said to laughter during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, pointing to President Trump.

Trump, who was sitting to Rubio’s left, responded “Good” and smirked.

Miami beat Notre Dame 27–24 in Week 1 of the 2025 season.

It was a moment of levity during a more than two-hour meeting held amid questions over a deadly double strike against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela in September. Rubio — a Miami native, a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law in 1996 and a former senator from the state of Florida — acknowledged that “I’m a Florida Gator” before firmly throwing his support behind Miami in the debate raging on college football-related social media.

Marco Rubio on Miami and the CFP:

“If the University of Miami gets screwed out of the College Football Playoff after going 10-2 and beating Notre Dame, the whole thing should be scrapped and [President Trump] is gonna have to take over next year.”pic.twitter.com/xE8wBmftB5

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 2, 2025

 

In Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings, Notre Dame dropped a spot to No. 10 while Miami remained at No. 12. The Fighting Irish possess the 13th-best strength of record in 2025, according to ESPN’s College Football Power Index. The Hurricanes sit right behind them at No. 14. Notre Dame also has the 42nd-best strength of schedule compared with Miami’s 44th.

Miami has two losses to unranked teams (Louisville and SMU) after SMU fell from the rankings Tuesday. Meanwhile, both of Notre Dame’s losses are to ranked teams (it also lost 41–40 to Texas A&M in Week 2). However, the fact remains that Notre Dame lost in the first week of the year to the Hurricanes — a fact of much contention in college football circles.

In a recent press conference, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman weighed in:

“You want the 12 best teams now,” Freeman told reporters. “Who are the best teams now? Not Week 1, now. It’s hard to argue we aren’t one of those teams.”

Miami didn’t make the ACC championship game, and Notre Dame is independent, so both teams’ resumes will be unchanged through conference championship weekend. They will be evaluated as is before the final CFP rankings are revealed on December 7 at noon ET.