The College Football Playoff picture has narrowed fast for Notre Dame, and the next two weeks could decide whether the Fighting Irish stay in the race or watch it slip away.
Miami arrives at No. 1 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time since 2002, while Notre Dame is still dealing with the fallout from a 28-24 loss to BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah. That defeat came with plenty of controversy attached.
With four seconds left in regulation, CJ Carr had a shot to win it for the Fighting Irish on a quick pass to Jaden Greathouse in the end zone, and redshirt senior cornerback Evan Johnson could have been called for pass interference. What got the college football world talking, though, was the ball hitting the ground with one second clearly left on the clock.
“The Conference will conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating process in advance of next week’s games,” they said.
The result is unlikely to be changed, and Notre Dame’s margin for error is gone. The Fighting Irish are not fully out of the playoff chase, but the Nov. 7 meeting with Miami has the feel of a make-or-break game.
As an independent, Notre Dame needs to finish in the top 12 by the Selection Committee to lock in a postseason spot. The problem is simple: a second loss, especially with both defeats coming against top-10 teams, would be tough to overcome.
Since the playoff expanded to 12 teams in 2024, only seven two-loss programs have made the bracket, including Clemson (2024) and Alabama (2025) having three. Ohio State went all the way and won the 2024 National Championship.
The matchup itself carries plenty of weight, and it also brings the “Catholics Vs. Convicts” rivalry back into the spotlight in South Bend, Indiana.
History leans heavily toward Notre Dame here. Miami is 1-12 all-time at Notre Dame, with its lone win coming on Oct.
6, 1984.
There’s another wrinkle for the Hurricanes: it will be the first time Darian Mensah faces a ranked opponent, and not just any ranked opponent, but one in the top 10.
Notre Dame’s upcoming slate leaves little room to breathe:
- Oct. 31 at Navy
- Nov. 7 vs.
Miami
- Nov. 14 vs.
Boston College
- Nov. 21 vs.
SMU (Currently ranked No. 23)
- Nov. 28 at Syracuse
Miami can do a lot of damage to a lot of playoff hopes, but before the Irish show up in South Bend, the Hurricanes are looking at Pitt. Kickoff is set for 12:00 p.m.
E.T. Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium, with the game airing on ESPN.
In Other News...
Bryce Fitzgeralds Florida State Moment Came With A Painful Price
Bryce Fitzgerald has spent this season showing how much the Miami secondary has been asked to absorb, moving from safety to cornerback because of injuries and taking on a bigger voice in the room while still learning on the fly. On Saturday night, he added another layer to that role against Florida State, staying in a game where he hurt his right shoulder early and continuing to battle through the pain as the Hurricanes tried to hang on in a rivalry that rarely offers anything easy.
In double overtime, Fitzgerald found his defining play of the night, rising over a taller receiver to snare a Hail Mary and seal Miamis 43-35 win. The interception was the kind of finish that gets remembered around Coral Gables, but the physical toll behind it mattered too, because Fitzgerald had already been compromised long before the final snap and was still out there when the game was on the line. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Beat FSU But One Trouble Spot Just Got Harder To Ignore
Miamis double-overtime win over Florida State had the feel of a hard-earned rivalry victory, the kind that can carry a team for a while. The Hurricanes leaned on explosive nights from Malachi Toney, who caught 11 passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns, and Javian Mallory, who added 108 rushing yards and two scores, to outlast the Seminoles 43-35 in a game that asked plenty of both sides.
The concern afterward was hard to miss in the secondary, where multiple injuries hit the defensive backfield and made the depth chart look a lot thinner than Miami would like. Bryce Fitzgerald and Zechariah Poyser were among the players affected, and while the offense delivered enough to win this one, the Hurricanes may have exposed a spot that becomes much tougher to manage if the injury list keeps growing. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Fans Have Every Right To Be Furious After BYU
Saturdays chaos around the top of the AP poll only added to the sense that college footballs playoff picture is getting scrambled earlier than anyone expected. On Oct. 17, 2026, five of the AP Top 25s top seven teams went down, the first time that has ever happened in poll history, while injuries to players such as Colin Simmons and Julian Sayin further thinned the field of contenders and changed the tone of a wild weekend.
For Miami fans, the bigger takeaway is how quickly the wider playoff race can shift when the sport delivers a slate like this one. The SEC having no unbeaten teams through Week 7 for the first time since 2007 is the kind of development that can alter the path for everyone else, and the ripple effects from the officiating mistakes in BYU-Notre Dame only made the bracket conversation messier. [Read more 🡒]