Miami coach Mario Cristobal said Wednesday his team was not “not assessed justly and fairly” by the College Football Playoff selection committee and hopes it will reconsider its decision to rank the 10-2 Hurricanes at No. 12, one spot below 9-3 Alabama, in its penultimate rankings.
As it stands now, Alabama would be the last at-large team to make the cut and Miami the first one out. The Canes dropped from No. 6 to No. 12 following last week’s 32-28 loss at 9-3 Syracuse, which is now the committee’s No. 22 team.
“Winning 10 games is exponentially harder than winning nine,” Cristobal said on Wednesday’s episode of “The Audible.” “This whole, ‘This conference is better than that conference,’ some of the teams are, but not all the teams are. Never once were we in a blowout loss against a .500 team.”
Cristobal was referring to Alabama’s 24-3 defeat at 6-6 Oklahoma on Nov. 23, the Tide’s third loss of the season.
Selection committee chairman Warde Manuel said Tuesday night that the committee’s placement of Alabama above Miami came down to their performances against top-end teams. The Tide finished the regular season 3-1 against teams in the committee’s current Top 25 while the Canes went 0-1. He also cited Alabama’s 5-1 record against teams with winning records vs. Miami’s 4-2 mark.
Cristobal, who was Alabama’s offensive line coach from 2013-16, countered that his team was 4-2 on the road against teams that finished .500 or better while Alabama went 1-3.
“I worked at Alabama, and it was an honor to work there, during a time when it (went) on an epic run,” said Cristobal. “But times have changed, football has changed. It’s hard to find a weekend where there’s not several close, tight games and upsets because the margins in college football are super thin. Winning gets harder and harder, and there’s a lot more parity.”
While Cristobal hopes the committee will reassess the two teams, Manuel was adamant Tuesday night that it will not reevaluate teams that have completed their regular seasons. And that would signal that the Miami-Alabama order will not change. The Tide could still miss the CFP, however, if No. 17 Clemson beats No. 8 SMU in this week’s ACC Championship Game and the committee keeps the Mustangs ahead of Alabama.
“It needs reexamination and assessment so it can be done the right way,” said Cristobal “So much is on the line.”
(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
