How Miami will play a home game in the national championship

Miami will enter the national championship game as the lowest seed in the College Football Playoff’s brief 12-team history, but the Hurricanes have a distinct advantage over their opponent — playing at home.

Miami will face the winner of Friday’s CFP semifinal game — No. 1 Indiana versus No. 5 Oregon — at Hard Rock Stadium in the title game on Jan. 19.

Hard Rock Stadium, also the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, was selected as the site for the title game in 2022.

It marks the first time in the BCS/College Football Playoff era that a team will “host” the national championship. In 2019, LSU won the national championship in its home state of Louisiana, though the game was played in New Orleans’ Superdome rather than the school’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. LSU has played in the national championship game three other times in its home state since 1998, also winning in 2003 and 2007.

It’s rare for a collegiate or professional team to host a championship game, but it’s happened more in recent years. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV in February 2021 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, although that game was played in front of limited fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium in L.A.

Several World Cup champions have played for the title in their home country. Most recently, France won the 1998 tournament in front of its home fans. Argentina did the same thing in 1978.

In an earlier era of college football, teams occasionally clinched national titles in bowl games on their home fields.

Three of Miami’s five national titles came via Orange Bowl wins on its home field in the 1983, 1987 and 1991 seasons at the Miami Orange Bowl stadium.

The Hurricanes moved to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., in 2008, roughly 25 miles from the school’s campus in Coral Gables.

Hard Rock hasn’t seen the same dominance from the Hurricanes as its predecessor. Since moving to the new stadium, the program has not appeared in a national championship, hasn’t won an ACC championship and faded in national prominence until its resurgence this season.

Jan. 19 will put Miami back on college football’s biggest stage, when the Hurricanes play at home for the first time in over two months and aim to add a fourth national championship in front of their fans.