UM to play Duke on Saturday; Alabama still a unanimous No. 1
The Miami Hurricanes will indeed be playing football Saturday.
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Sunday night that the University of Miami, which had next weekend’s Dec. 5 game at Wake Forest called off (COVID-19 at Wake), will instead play at Duke in Durham, North Carolina.
The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and be televised by the ACC Network.
The reason Miami (7-1, 6-1 ACC) is able to play Duke (2-7, 1-7) is because Florida State, which has its own COVID-19 outbreak, was supposed to play at Duke next Saturday but had that game announced Sunday as one that will not be played.
Since Duke belongs to the ACC, UM will not have to reschedule the Wake game.
Duke had five turnovers and lost 56-33 to Georgia Tech on Saturday.
The Hurricanes, ranked 10th in the College Football Playoff rankings and ninth in the AP and Coaches polls, last played Nov. 14 at Virginia Tech but have had the past two weekends off because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the UM program. Then, this weekend, the Canes learned about the Wake game not being played and thought they might have to spend yet a third consecutive week idle.
Regardless, Miami players, like players on all ACC teams, must be tested for COVID-19 at least three times this week, the final time on Friday.
Miami’s coronavirus outbreak included coach Manny Diaz, who told reporters on Wednesday that the Canes would begin practicing Monday and that he would be there, though he couldn’t be sure of how many players would be available and healthy enough to take part.
Before the coronavirus pandemic caused the ACC to completely revamp the 2020 league schedules, UM had been scheduled to play Duke at Hard Rock Stadium in the regular-season finale Nov. 28. But when the schedules were rearranged, Duke was taken off UM’s schedule.
Because of the pandemic, Notre Dame was added just for this season as an ACC member in football, and the usual Atlantic and Coastal divisions were merged into one 15-team division. Duke and Miami normally belong to the Coastal.
After Duke, Miami will play North Carolina at Hard Rock on Dec. 12, before ending the regular season at home Dec. 19 against Georgia Tech (but only if UM is not in the ACC title game).
Even though it was idles last weekend, UM rose one spot to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 Poll earlier Sunday.
Miami, which was previously at No. 9 in the Amway Coaches Poll, stayed the same for the second consecutive week.
The traditional AP and Coaches polls are not the same as the College Football Playoff rankings, which have Miami at No. 10 after the initial rankings were released Tuesday.
The CFP top-25 rankings, which will be released weekly through Dec. 20, are the ones ultimately used to determine the four teams in this season’s semifinal playoffs. The CFP rankings also are used to determine the teams that will fill out the New Year’s Six bowl games.
— SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN
AP TOP 25 POLL
Alabama is the unanimous No. 1 again in The Associated Press college football poll as the top eight teams in the rankings held steady for the fourth week in a row.
The Crimson Tide got 62 first-place votes for the second consecutive week and are followed by No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Clemson.
Southeastern Conference teams Texas A&M and Florida are fifth and sixth, respectively. Unbeaten Cincinnati is seventh and undefeated BYU is eighth.
The changes in the poll came after that, with Miami inching up to No. 9 and Indiana returning to the top 10.
Oregon’s first loss of the season knocked the Ducks out of the top 10, dropping them 12 spots to No. 21.
The Crimson Tide have now been ranked for 209 consecutive AP polls, matching Florida’s run from 1990-02 under Steve Spurrier for the third-longest streak in the history of the rankings.
Florida State is second at 211 straight poll appearances from 1989-01. With two games against losing teams left on Alabama’s schedule, the Tide are likely to catch Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles before the SEC title game Dec. 19.
ELSEWHERE
●Vanderbilt: Head coach
Derek Mason was fired Sunday after losing the first eight games of his seventh season, and offensive coordinator Todd Fitch will serve as the interim coach. “While this was a difficult decision, but I know this change is necessary,” athletic director Candice Lee said in a statement. “We wish Derek and his entire family the best.” Hired in 2014 as Vanderbilt’s 28th coach, Mason replaced James Franklin when he left for Penn State. Mason came to Vanderbilt after being associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Stanford. ... Sarah Fuller, the most-famous walkon in college football this season, isn’t ready to walk away from the sport. After the soccer player-turned kicker became the first woman to play in a Power Five conference football game, Fuller said she wants to remain a member of the team. “I’ll stay around as long as they want me.”