For the first time this season, the Miami Hurricanes are ranked in the top ten of all of the major polls: eighth in the AP, ninth in the coaches', and tenth in the Harris Interactive and BCS standings. But, with the exception of LSU, we're the only team in the top ten that doesn't control its own destiny.
Of course, the chances of the Canes ending up in the Orange Bowl got a bit better thanks to Georgia Tech beating Virginia Tech, sending the now two-loss Hokies tumbling down the polls, but also opening up the possibility that the ACC Coastal Division could end up in a three-way clusterfuck, and the winner might be decided by literally picking a name out of a hat. That scenario has been explained ad nauseam elsewhere, and yet we still don't fully comprehend it. Then there's still the possibility the Atlantic Conference team (whichever the hell that is, apparently Boston College has the edge) could pull out a miraculous win in the ACC championship game over the Coastal team, sending an unranked team to the Orange Bowl over three teams that could end up ranked. Yay, college football and its nonstop sense-making!
But before we even think about that, the Canes locker room and their fans should pay at least a little attention to what happened to Ohio State this weekend -- and what almost happened to Florida and Texas.
As in, no one is invincible, and certainly not Miami. North Carolina has had the Canes' number for the past couple of years, and USF players got a taste of beating one of the big three by dismantling FSU earlier this year, and I'm sure they go to bed each night and dream little dreams of Sebastian the Ibis's bill impaled on a bull's horn.
Luckily, that's not a lesson UM learned firsthand this week, when they beat UCF 27-7 in the single most attended game in Bright House Networks Stadium (hmm, apparently there are stadium names worse than LandShark). Poor UCF, though -- it might never host another major Florida college again in its pretty stadium. But that's college football -- no one said it was fair.
