‘Shocked’ ACC commish Jim Phillips compares Miami to Alabama, says ‘Canes deserve better’

Not long after Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich took to social media to vent his frustration at his Hurricanes being left out of the CFP latest rankings behind Alabama, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips added his disbelief.

In a statement to Brett McMurphy, Phillips said Miami deserves better and is asking the committee to reconsider.

“We are certainly pleased that SMU moved up on the rankings and that the committee continued to recognize the Mustangs’ incredible season, which should unequivocally ear them a playoff spot, regardless of this weekend’s outcome. With that said, we are also incredibly shocked and disappointed that Miami dropped six spots to No. 12.”

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He then laid out the case for No. 12 Miami (10-2), stating it has more wins and fewer losses than No. 11 Alabama (9-3). Plus, the Hurricanes have a “dominant victory over an SEC team (Florida) whose late-season surge includes a win over No. 13 Ole Miss.

“Moreover, with two losses by a combined nine points – to a ranked Syracuse team and a Georgia Tech team that just took No. 5 Georgia to eight overtimes – Miami absolutely deserves better from the committee.

“As we look ahead to the final rankings, we hope the committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field. We will continue to look forward to this weekend, when Clemson and SMU have an opportunity to earn an ACC championship and represent the conference in the CFP.”

Since neither Alabama nor Miami play in their conference championship games, the Hurricanes can’t jump over the Tide, according to CFP committee chairman Warde Manuel.

“Any team that is not playing right now, we don’t have a data point to rearrange where we have those teams ranked, and so that is set in terms of how we see them going into the final week of championship week,” Manuel said. “There’s nothing that’s going to change for us to evaluate them any differently than we have now.

“Those teams who are not playing cannot be adjusted in terms of where they are compared to other teams that are not playing, but the championship [game] teams we will evaluate that data point to determine if there needs to be any movement, based on how the performance of the game goes.”