Of course Mario Cristobal cost Miami its College Football Playoff hopes
Syracuse upset Miami and the Hurricanes only have Mario Cristobal to blame. They kicked a field goal in the fourth quarter, down by seven points. Instead of going for it on fourth-and-goal, they gave Syracuse the chance to run the clock out.
Under most circumstances, I would agree to kick the field goal and rely on your defense. But this was a game where Syracuse scored 42 points. Defense wasn’t just going to magically show up on the final drive.
They gave Syracuse an out and it could cost them a spot in the College Football Playoff.
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Miami, Mario Cristobal at the mercy of everyone as CFP hopes slip away
According to Stewart Mandel’s X platform account, formerly known as Twitter, he currently has Miami as a bubble team. With their loss they aren’t playing in the ACC championship game. That means they’d need SMU to win.
Heading into the primetime games, here's where I see the CFP field. pic.twitter.com/ZypE5U4sSu
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 1, 2024
If Clemson beats SMU, both will get in and Miami will be the odd one out. I think that’s pretty fair, considering they have a terrible strength of schedule and no ranked wins. Miami doesn’t deserve to get in, regardless of their record.
At this point in the season, you have to fight like every game matters. And Cristobal being conservative in kicking the field goal, basically made it like he was content with a win or loss because they were a shoo into the CFP.
Because as you saw, even with a field goal, they weren’t guaranteed one more chance either.
The way this college football season is going, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Miami find a way in. A lot of crazy things have happened and Miami has been right in the center of it. Their best chance is for SMU to win.
But the SEC has had a lot of favoritism throughout the season so they could get leap frogged, especially by a team with a better strength of schedule. And this all could have been avoided if Miami would have won.
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