Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Rough start for CFP, Fins-49ers, Inter Miami trade & more in new HB10

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (DECEMBER 22): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK : Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column brings you what’s on our minds, locally and nationally but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 86th edition of your Sunday sports potpourri, the HB10: 1. COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Home favorites dominate in CFP playoff’s first round: Not a scintillating start for the first 12-team CFP. Home favorites Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas and Ohio State won by 10, 28, 14 and 25 points in the first round of the College Football Playoffs Friday and Saturday -- making losers Indiana, SMU, Clemson and Tennessee seem unworthy. In the next round Dec. 31-Jan. 1 it’ll be Ohio State-Oregon and Notre Dame-Georgia in near-pick ‘em marquee games, along with Texas-Arizona State and Penn State-Boise State quarterfinals that find the Longhorns and Nittany Lions big favorites. 2. DOLPHINS: Fins, 49ers enter Sunday realistically in Maybe Next Year mode: Miami hosting San Francisco on Sunday in this season’s NFL is akin to two patients flat-lining on a hospital bed. The result will send one team’s season to the football morgue and leave the other to (barely, sort of) survive. Niners are in especially dire shape. They’re eliminated with a loss and still on life-support with a win. Dolphins with a win are projected up to a 12 percent playoff likelihood and down to a negligible 1 percent if they lose. In other words, for both disappointing teams, it’s Maybe Next Year mode for the holidays. 3. INTER MIAMI: Herons trade proven scorer Campana for cash. Hmm...: Inter Miami traded young forward Leo Campana, 24, to MLS rival New England Revolution for a league trade-record $2.5 million in General Allocation Money split across 2025 and ‘26. Campana scored 32 goals in 100 appearances across all competitions. That’s a notable loss as Inter Miami enters 2025 with an imperative to win the MLS Cup -- which it stunningly fell far short of doing last season -- in the club’s last season in its Fort Lauderdale stadium and (presumably) the last with Lionel Messi. New season opens Feb. 22 at home vs. New York City FC. 4. HURRICANES: Let’s all pretend Pop-Tarts Bowl isn’t a sad consolation prize: Miami faces Iowa State this coming Saturday in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, its penalty-prize for losing two late-season games and falling hard out of the College Football Playoff. We are imagining thousands of UM frat boys trekking to Mouse Town dressed as Pop-Tarts. No? The excitement around Coral Gables is so thick you can cut it with a feather. 5. PANTHERS: Cats stay hot with doubleheader vs. rival Tampa next: Reigning NHL champ Florida is 21-13 after a third straight win with Friday’s 2-1 OT home skate past St. Louis on Aleksander Barkov’s power-play goal. The Panthers.renew their state rivalry with Tampa Bay for first time this season next with games Sunday upstate and Monday in the Sunrise rink. 6. HEAT: Miami sinks with blown 25-point lead at Magic: Miami has sunk to a mediocre 13-13 with Saturday’s blown 25-point-lead defeat in Orlando. Heat, playing without Jimmy Butler, was embarrassed to be outscored 37-8 in a third straight loss. Struggling Heat will try to get on track Monday on home wood vs. Brooklyn. 7. CANES HOOPS: UM women’s team flying high as first big test nears: It’s a big start for new Hurricanes women’s coach Tricia Cullop and a team buoyed by the return of the Cavinder twins. UM is 11-1 after a pair of wins in the Maui Classic in Hawaii. How is this team not ranked!? Miami women prepare for season;s biggest test yet December 29 vs. No. 19 North Carolina. Canes men, oppositely, are off to a 4-8 start after Saturday’s OT home loss to Mount St. Mary’s. 8. MARLINS: A lump of coal in the Marlins’ stocking: Miami’s MLB team this week announced the hiring of one Brian Chase as “vice president of baseball systems.” The Marlins seem to be expanding their front office, creating new titles. Alas, what the Marlins are steadfastly do not seem to be doing is spending money on players to help the team win games. Shirts and ties have never won a game. The Fish will never compete in the NL East with this owner spending as little as he does. 9. FAMILY: Wishing Trinity, Dennis Rodman a healing 2025: Sad this week to hear U.S. women’s soccer star Trinity Rodman say of her former NBA star father, “He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else.” She said that growing up, her mother tried to shield her two children from the lifestyle of their famous father. Sad also to hear Dennis respond that he’s sorry he “wasn’t the dad you wanted me to be” and: “I always had one wish and it was I wish my kids would call me and come see me. Hopefully one day I can get that.” Rodman is 63, his daughter 22. I hope for both it isn’t too late. 10. PERSONAL NOTE: Thank you for the holiday gift...: A happy holidays wish to you all as I near the end of yet another year loving what I do for a living and grateful. If you have been a loyal reader or listener of ours -- whether in the Herald, on the Le Batard Show, on my own podcast or all of the above -- you have gifted me my career. Thank you! Twenty-nine teams in our North American BIg Six leagues -- NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and WNBA -- have won at least five championships. Hera are only eight to have reached double figures in season crowns: Other most recent stuff from me: NFL Week 16 picks // Herald NFL Week 15 QB Rankings // Dolphins blow it. Playoff hopes dim in Houston in nightmare of Tua turnovers // Previous HB10 // Poll Dance: Belichick at North Carolina // Time for Heat to trade Jimmy Butler, say goodbye, move on if deal is right // Epic embarrassment! Canes blow 21-point lead, ACC title hopes in loss at Syracuse // It’s mountaintop to hinterlands for Miami Marlins’ new manager // Tyson-Paul is ridiculous, a freak show. But we’ll watch // Messi, Inter Miami out in MLS playoffs’ first round a stunning disappointment // ‘Who is that guy?’ Dwyane Wade deserves immortality of statue -- iffy likeness or not // Pete Rose wasn’t perfect, but MLB’s endless lack of mercy followed him to grave // And my latest podcast: