Miami’s run to the College Football Playoff final wasn’t just historic on the field; it was transformative off it. That 31-27 First Bowl win over Ole Miss helped Mario Cristobal’s Hurricanes get a $32 million payout. AD Dan Radakovich has credited Clemson AD Graham and Florida State AD Michael Alford as the key reasons Miami is now cashing in on one of the most lucrative runs in program history.

“Well, first of all, to Michael and Graham, yes, I did thank them,” Radakovich said.

Competing under the ACC structure, which allows the schools to keep the 100% of the playoff revenue they earn, Miami will keep the entire windfall. This is a sharp departure from the previous model, where everyone had a piece of the cake.

The Hurricanes locked in $20 million for winning three CFP games and reaching the title game, plus roughly $12 million in travel reimbursements. And it didn’t happen by accident.

Radakovich openly credited Clemson leadership for pushing the ACC’s “success initiatives” that made this payout possible in the first place.

“I thanked them a long time ago when all this stuff was going on, because nobody knew who was going to be the first team to actually get from the ACC this far,” Radakovich said.

His acknowledgment highlights the behind-the-scenes influence that helped shape the framework Miami is now benefiting from. Just two years ago, the ACC was on the verge of collapsing because of the challenges to the league’s economic model by Clemson and Florida State, who were also considering leaving the league. Those tensions forced change.

Revenue sharing was rewritten, and playoff money is now awarded directly to the schools that earn it rather than being pooled and split across the conference. Of course, a $32 million payout isn’t just free cash.

“We do have some expenses. At the end of the day, the university has invested a lot of money in our athletic program. We would have to do this multiple times to even scratch the surface of repaying their investment…We will continue to use these dollars to make our athletic program better,” Radakovich said.

While Miami and the ACC are riding real momentum on the field, the power dynamics off it remain complicated.

Playoff expansion debate is back!

Playoff expansion talks are back on the table as CFP executives assemble in South Florida before the national championship game. With a deadline of January 23, the Big Ten and SEC have the loudest voices in the room as they argue about whether the playoffs should remain at 12 teams or expand to 16 or even 24.

Recent exclusions from Florida State in 2023 to Miami and Notre Dame have only increased the urgency for the ACC.

“You have to (expand). You can’t ignore what’s occurred,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said, pointing to recent seasons as proof the format is leaving deserving teams out. “When you look at the last two years at 12, and what we had done previously with the format of four (teams) for 10 years, there are some good takeaways. One of them is that some of them signal we don’t necessarily have the right format if you leave good teams (out).”

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That urgency lines up with the stand Clemson has taken for years, and now Radakovich is saying the same thing.

“We support that format, but I do want to say that I think that longer term, moving this to a 20 or 24 team playoff really can, it can occur, ” Radakovich said. “And I think it really would be a great thing for college football. You know, the football championship series, FCS has been doing that for a while…So I think that how we go about pulling it together, whether there’s automatic bids, whether there’s just within each conference, automatic qualifiers, however that works, we need to take a good long look at that.”

Still, an agreement is tough to come by. While the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 continue to support a 16-team “5+11” format that allots spots to conference winners, the Big Ten is still making the strongest push for a 24-team model.

For the ACC, the stakes are high. Miami’s run has brought the conference back into the national spotlight. But will that momentum carry over into real power in the boardroom?