It seemed unbearable two months ago.
Two years ago – impossible.
But contrary to expectations, Miami and Indiana have a date in the College Football Playoff — a first-of-its-kind matchup on Jan. 19 in the second national title game of the expanded playoff era.
The Hoosiers (15-0), the top seed in the 12-team tournament, beat Oregon 56-22 on Friday night to reach the final. The Hurricanes (13-2), seeded 10th and the last top team to take the field, beat Mississippi 31-27 the night before.
Indiana State opened as a 7 1/2-point favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
The game is set at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida – the venue that has long been chosen for a game that also happens to be the home of the Hurricanes. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is a Miami native who grew up less than a mile from the campus in Coral Gables.
“This means a little more to me,” Mendoza said of the title match that doubled as a homecoming.
He will oppose the program known as “The U.” Miami won five titles between 1983 and 2001 and gained a reputation as the most aggressive in college football.
After a quarter of a century, they became one party in a story of two new renaissances.
Miami was created by coach Mario Cristobal, a local boy and former “Kane” who returned home four years ago to lead his alma mater to a place it had not been in decades.
Among his biggest wins was luring center fielder Carson Beck to spend his final year of eligibility with the ‘Canes.
Beck, who has been steadily returning to form after an elbow injury ended his season at Georgia last year, is improving every week. He has thrown 15 TDs and two interceptions over seven straight games dating back to Nov. 8.
“He’s hungry, he’s driven, he’s a great human being, and all he wants to do is see his teammates have success,” Cristobal said after Beck threw for 268 yards and ran for the win against Ole Miss.
It was the latest step in a long climb from 18th in the season’s first CFP rankings on Nov. 4 — barely within striking distance of the bubble — after their second loss of the season.
The Hurricanes haven’t lost since.
The Hoosiers rise from nowhere to the brink of a title
Indiana’s climb to the top is a longer one. This is a program that had 713 losses over 130 years heading into the 2024 season. Since then, just two.
Credit for that turnaround goes to coach Curt Cignetti, who arrived from James Madison and declared: “It’s pretty simple. I won. Google me,” while explaining his confident tone in a signing-day press conference in December 2023 when he was given the heart of the class that took Indiana State from obscurity to the brink of a title.
But Indiana’s biggest hit came nearly a year ago out of the transfer portal — the oxygen that drives the current game.
Mendoza, who went to the same high school as Cristobal in Miami, chose Indiana State as the place to finish his career. He has so far won the Heisman Trophy, and is almost certain to be a top-five pick in the NFL Draft.
“I can’t say enough about him,” Cignetti said.
Another win and it would bring a national title and an undefeated season to Indiana, even 50 years after the 1975-76 Hoosiers basketball team, led by coach Bob Knight, did the same.
A lot of people could see that coming. It’s hard to say the same about this.
The CFP selection committee almost prevented this game from happening
It may seem like ancient history, but Miami almost never made the playoffs.
In their first rankings of the season, in November, the CFP selection committee ranked the Hurricanes eight spots behind the Notre Dame team they beat to start the season.
Miami’s history of slowly creeping up the standings, then passing the Irish to last place, has been well documented. If Miami’s trip to the final proves anything, it’s how far outside the norm the committee started when the ‘Canes started at 18, even if they are coming off a loss to SMU, their second of the season.
Although these programs have not met since the 1960s, there is a familiarity.
One of the best games of 2024 was Miami coming back from a 25-point deficit to beat Cal. Bears’ quarterback: Mendoza, who threw for 285 yards but was outplayed by Cam Ward in a 39-38 loss.
With Ward headed to the NFL, the Hurricanes were a consideration for Mendoza as he looked for a new place to finish out his college career. But he chose Indiana, Beck transferred to Miami, and now they’re meeting.
Miami makes big money
The College Football Playoff will distribute $20 million to the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conferences to place their teams in the Finals — $4 million for making the quarterfinals, $4 million for making the quarterfinals, then $6 million each for the semifinals and final.
While the Big Ten divides that money evenly among its 18 members, Miami keeps it all for itself — part of the “Success Initiatives Program” the ACC started last season that allows schools to keep all the postseason money they earn in football and basketball.
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