Tuesday’s release of the College Football Playoff Rankings, the last installment leading up to the finale on Sunday, was not favorable to the Miami Hurricanes. And their conference took issue with it.
Indeed, Alabama snuck into the coveted No. 11 spot, as announced on ESPN’s rankings release show, while Miami fell to No. 12. That means, barring an upset in Saturday’s ACC championship game between Clemson and SMU, Alabama might be headed back to the CFP for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons — despite losing three times under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer — while the Hurricanes get left out of the first 12-team tournament.
In a statement, released after the show concluded, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said the league was “incredibly shocked and disappointed” that Miami fell six spots to No. 12 and added coach Mario Cristobal’s team “absolutely deserves better from the committee.”
“As we look ahead to the final rankings,” he added, “we hope the committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field.”
Miami suffered their second defeat of the season on Saturday, 42-38 at Syracuse. It was their second loss in three games, which all came in conference play. The less-than-stellar finish meant Miami failed to qualify for the ACC title game, which makes matters more difficult for a team that opened 9-0.
Cristobal spoke on a South Florida radio station earlier on Tuesday, long before the rankings were released. He, at the time, implored the selection committee to “go to the facts” when deciding whether the Hurricanes (10-2, 6-2 ACC).
“We won 10 games this year and not many teams have,” Cristobal said on WQAM, the Hurricanes’ flagship station. “And in our losses, those losses came down to one possession. That’s a very different resume than the 9-3 teams.'”
Part of Miami’s argument for a CFP berth is that the Hurricanes won easily at Florida to open the season, that they lead the nation in yards and points per game, that Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Cam Ward led the nation with 36 touchdown passes, that they went unbeaten at home and their two losses — at Georgia Tech and to the Orange — were by a combined nine points.
“The awards should go to the teams that are actually winning the games, not the ones that are politicking themselves out of losses,” Cristobal said.
The arguments against Miami include that the Hurricanes didn’t face any teams that were ranked in that particular week and that the defense allowed at least 31 points five times in the final eight games.
Yet even with the defensive struggles, the Hurricanes still finished the regular season as one of seven teams nationally ranked in the top 25 in both yards per game and yards allowed per game, along with Indiana, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee and Texas.
“Go to the facts,” Cristobal said. “Award football teams for winning football games.”
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.
The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.
“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”
The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.
The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.
The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.
The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.
Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.
“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”
Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.
“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”
The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.
“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.
“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”