Warde Manuel Highlights No. 6 Miami in Latest College Football Rankings
The Miami Hurricanes have risen in the rankings once again as the regular season finale is here. The Canes have a lot of work especially going against one of the best offenses in the ACC that can match the output of the Hurricanes.
How To Watch: No. 8 Miami's Final Regular Season Game at Syracuse
Committee chair Warde Manuel had some questions asked to him about No. 6 Miami and how they also factor in with other programs like no. 7 Georgia and No. 8 Tennessee:
Q. How does the committee value game control and dominating teams compared to the ability to fight back and come back in games like in Miami's case? Does the committee view that as a negative because they were behind or they were in close games against unranked teams or is it a positive that they have that kind of tenacity?
WARDE MANUEL: Well, I think we value both when you win. Miami had the dominant win over Florida. Then they had a close win in a very good game against Louisville. They found a way to win close games until they played Georgia Tech at Georgia Tech. But you look at what they did this past weekend with their win over Wake Forest, it reminded the committee of how they played against Florida. We value winning, but yeah, we do see when teams are playing close games and how they finish and whether they win them or lose them. We do watch that. But we value ultimately when teams do find a way to win. But Miami has done both. They've dominated teams and they've had some very close games. Even the loss to Georgia Tech was a close game.
Q. Specifically with those three teams kind of stuck together there at 6, 7 and 8, Miami, Georgia and Tennessee, a couple of questions on that. Just wondering, obviously, Georgia knows now it's going to play in a conference championship game. I think I heard you say this on the telecast, but I guess I wanted to hear it from you myself. In terms of the jeopardy of possibly losing a game that Tennessee does not face in a conference championship game that Georgia would. Then if I can follow on that, Georgia at Georgia Tech this week, a team that gave Miami its only loss. Would beating Georgia Tech, do you guys extrapolate and look at it like that, as well, comparatively, that that would be a win over a team that beat Miami?
WARDE MANUEL: Yeah, again, both the questions -- I get what you're asking, but both of them are sort of projecting. We value teams that make the championship. It is of value to us. But we've been asked by the commissioners to rank the teams all the way through the championship weekend. For us, Georgia winning this week, we'll evaluate that as it relates to if they win, how the game is played, how they win, just like we do every week compared to what others do around them, and then with the championship game and valuing both, we will see the outcome of the game, the way teams are playing. It's another data point to look at it for us to assess teams as it relates to how we do the final Top 25 ranking because that's our focus. The focus is not on ranking teams to get to the playoff, it's ranking the top 25 and then we'll let the seeding principles that have been developed by the commissioners to take place after that.
