Miami playing a rare season opener on the road at Stanford

Excluding neutral-site games, No. 7 Miami opens a season on the road for only the second time since 2015, playing at Stanford on Friday night. 

Miami won 41-17 at Florida to begin the 2024 season in the only other road opener for the Hurricanes since 2015. Stanford opened its season with a 37-27 win over Hawaii on Aug. 29.

The ESPN Football Power Index projects Miami with a 92.5 percent chance to beat Stanford. Miami beat Stanford, 42-7, in 2025 in their only previous meeting. In its last played game on the West Coast, Miami won 39-38 at California in 2024, rallying from a 35-10 second-half deficit.

Miami is playing a regular-season game for the eighth time in California. The game at Stanford is the only one the Hurricanes are playing outside of the Eastern Time Zone during the 2026 regular season. Other road games for Miami during the 2026 regular season are at Wake Forest, Clemson, North Carolina and Notre Dame.

Miami won four times in five 2025 road games. The Hurricanes had victories in their three final true road games last season. Miami won at Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh to put itself in position for a College Football Playoff berth and then won its first-round game at Texas A&M.