People have been arguing for weeks about whether the Miami Hurricanes deserve to be in the playoffs. Miami is currently ranked No. 12, and the team clearly believes it should be one of the 12 selected. After Miami crushed No. 22 Pittsburgh 38–7, the Hurricanes felt they proved they belong. Head coach Mario Cristobal strongly believes his team is playoff-worthy.

“This is a College Football Playoff team,” Cristobal kept it blunt in the post-game on-field presser. “I think we’ve all seen it. … Complete dominance. A team that had great players in all phases, and we’re playing great football in all phases.” He also added that in football. “Head-to-head is always the number one criteria.”

Cristobal made these comments partly because there’s been a big debate about why Notre Dame is ranked ahead of Miami, even though Miami beat Notre Dame earlier in the season. Right now, Notre Dame is ranked No. 9 and Miami is No. 12. Both teams have two losses, but the timing and quality of those losses are different.

Notre Dame lost its first two games of the season, one of them to Miami, but then won nine straight. If they beat Stanford next week, they’ll finish on a 10-game winning streak. Miami started the season 5–0, then went 5–2 in the second half. Their two losses hurt their ranking because one was to unranked Louisville at home and the other was an overtime loss to SMU. Still, Miami has now won four straight games, all by multiple scores.

Miami entered Week 14 tied for fifth in the ACC at 5–2, FSN’s College Football Playoff Meter giving them only a 0.01% shot at grabbing one of the two spots in the ACC Championship Game. Even after taking care of the business at Pitt, they need more.

Miami needs the following: losses from Virginia, Duke, and SMU, plus an NC State win over North Carolina to tip the tiebreakers in their favor. The ACC race has been wild and unpredictable all season, so while the path was extremely bleak, Miami’s hopes came down to whether chaos elsewhere could finally swing their ways.

It seems the College Football Playoff committee values Notre Dame’s full season more than Miami’s head-to-head win. Since Miami’s ACC Championship is so complicated, both teams will probably finish 10–2. The committee will then have to decide whether Miami’s win over Notre Dame should matter more than the rest of Notre Dame’s résumé.

Will the playoff committee give the Hurricanes the benefit of the doubt?

Miami’s win was exactly what they needed to prove they’re one of the top teams in the country. Mario Cristobal has raised the program’s standard over the last three years, and hitting back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time since 2002–2003 tells everything about how far they’ve come.

The win was a full team effort, starting with freshman receiver Malachi Toney. He broke a long-standing Miami freshman record that had belonged to Ahmmon Richards since 2016. Toney ended the regular season with 941 yards, seven touchdowns, and 81 catches. Against Pittsburgh alone, he had more than 165 yards plus both a receiving and passing touchdown.

Miami also benefited from the steady play of quarterback Carson Beck, one of the most accurate passers in the country. He closed out the regular season with 3 tuddies passes and a 79 percent completion rate. Defense finally rose up to their on-paper talent: four sacks, six tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and an interception.

Now it’s up to the football gods, and yes, the playoff committee. The Hurricanes must wait to see how the rest of the weekend goes to find out whether they sneak into the ACC Championship or earn an at-large spot in the expanded College Football Playoff.