MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — No. 10 Miami will face No. 1 Indiana for the national championship on Monday night in its home stadium, yet the Hurricanes are an 8.5-point underdog — a role defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. said has been Miami’s «story the whole playoffs.»
He’s right.
Miami entered the season 25-1 to win the national championship and was 100-1 on the morning of the College Football Playoff bracket reveal, as the Hurricanes were underdogs to even make the playoff. 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 at its home stadium since championship games became an annual occurrence in 1998 with the start of the BCS.
Louisville this season. Following a Nov. 1 loss at SMU, Miami was ranked 18th in the initial CFP rankings. That would be the lowest a national champion has been in the initial CFP rankings.
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 an underdog in this last game — being an underdog in every game we played in the playoffs — really doesn’t mean anything to me,» Mesidor said. «It might fuel me a little bit, but at the end of the day, I just want to play football and show that we are the best team in the nation.»
Quarterback Carson Beck agreed and said «none of that matters.»
«This whole season, all we’ve really talked about is the people in this locker room is what matters,» he said. «Our coaches, our teammates, these fans — everybody that has backed you, that has supported us, that has 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 sideline, which is flipped from their usual home spot. They will still use their normal locker room, though, which is the Dolphins’ visitors locker room.
«I’m sure some guys might get confused and start running to the other sideline,» Beck said with a laugh. «But at the end of the day, once you step on the lines, between the field, it’s the same size end zone, same 100 yards, and it’s going to come down to the execution.»
While Miami will aim to prove that it is the best team in the country, the Hurricanes didn’t get the opportunity to win their conference because of the ACC’s tiebreaker. That something Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich said he expects will change this spring. Conference leaders haven’t begun discussions about what it might look like, though some sources have said there is a desire to have the Power 4 conferences use the same system.
«We need to change our tiebreakers in the ACC,» Radakovich said. «I’m sure we’re going to talk about it [at the winter league meetings]. It probably won’t be ratified until maybe spring meetings, but I do think we’ll have a new tiebreaking system in the ACC come the 2026 year.»
