{"id":67301,"date":"2025-12-02T01:23:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T01:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67301\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T01:23:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T01:23:17","slug":"mario-cristobal-makes-his-case-for-miamis-college-football-playoff-inclusion-we-did-a-better-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67301\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario Cristobal makes his case for Miami’s College Football Playoff inclusion: ‘We did a better job’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami head coach Mario Cristobal<\/a> didn\u2019t realize the recording for his appearance on Andy & Ari On3<\/a> had started Monday morning, so he hadn\u2019t begun publicly politicking for the Hurricanes\u2019 inclusion in the College Football Playoff field. He was expressing his true, raw emotions, not meant to be seen by the public.<\/p>\n

Cristobal, slapping his hands together, groaned out: \u201cMan, we have a really good team.\u201d <\/p>\n

Every coach in America with a team currently on the bubble is making a case for their team. Texas\u2019 Steve Sarkisian did it before he even walked off the field from Texas\u2019 win over Texas A&M on Friday night. Part of a coach\u2019s job is to be an ambassador for his program. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing, though: CFP resumes are malleable. Everyone can sift through the data, choose the most advantageous argument and present it. Anyone can win a debate if they get to choose which facts to lean on. There are many bad-faith debates in this regard.<\/p>\n

But Cristobal\u2019s argument? It\u2019s about as straightforward as possible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miami beat Notre Dame, fair and square and on national television for the entire world to see. <\/p>\n

To a football coach, what else is there? <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel strongly about our case,\u201d Cristobal told On3. \u201cIt\u2019s not because we are creating narrative. We are presenting facts. We played each other. We played the same teams. And we did a better job. Now we have to respectfully present the information. I don\u2019t want to come across a certain way, but \u2026 \u201d <\/p>\n

But he\u2019s desperate to get his message across because he can\u2019t fathom not having an opportunity to put his team on the field in the CFP. That\u2019s why he was slapping his hands, hoping the current injustice in the rankings doesn\u2019t happen Sunday when the final field is revealed. <\/p>\n

In the latest College Football Playoff Committee rankings, Notre Dame \u2013 the team Miami beat in the season-opener on Aug. 31 \u2014 ranked No. 9. Miami, with the same record, checked in at No. 12. This past weekend, Miami went up to Pittsburgh and beat the Panthers 38-7 despite the fact most people thought the Hurricanes couldn\u2019t play well in the cold.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame\u2019s season is over. Miami\u2019s season is over. Both programs have legitimate cases to make the CFP. Both are now in a holding pattern to see what the Committee will do. <\/p>\n

The difference? Notre Dame is currently firmly in the field. The gap between the Irish and the Hurricanes happens to be the cut off, which makes it highly likely that only of those two teams will make the field. With all the information finalized and no more games to be played, will the CFP Committee change anything? Will the rankings be different on Tuesday night?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a real deal playoff team that not only qualifies for the playoff, but is built to make a legitimate run at the whole thing,\u201d he said. \u201cLook at Miami, top to bottom, examine the metrics, examine the wins and losses and how they were played out. We trust that when all the facts are laid out and everything is set on the table, that head-to-head will come into play. That\u2019s what this sport has always been founded on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some data favors Notre Dame. The computers love the Irish. And it has to be said that Notre Dame is, like Miami, a very good team capable of a deep run into January. In a perfect world, both teams would make the CFP and settle it on the field. <\/p>\n

The funny thing about settling it on the field, though? <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve already played. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes down to things that are being compared, you always wish you had a head-to-head to evaluate,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cIn this case, we do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami head coach Mario Cristobal didn\u2019t realize the recording for his appearance on Andy & Ari On3 had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[39356,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-67301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-mario-cristobal-88-columbus","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}