Why Did Miami Jump Notre Dame In College Football Playoff? Committee Chair Explains
Notre Dame ranked ahead of Miami on the committee's Dec. 2 list
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were dealt a knockout blow.
The Alabama Crimson Tide and Miami Hurricanes earned the ninth and 10th spots in the 12-team College Football Playoff, making Notre Dame the first team out and BYU the second team out. Tulane and James Madison, who won their respective conference championships, received the 11th and 12th spots, as previously expected.
The Hurricanes defeated the Fighting Irish in a head-to-head matchup during the first week of the college football season. It was the deciding factor in Miami jumping Notre Dame, despite the Fighting Irish being ranked above the Hurricanes every time the College Football Playoff committee released its postseason rankings.
On Dec. 2, the committee ranked Notre Dame No. 10, BYU No. 11 and Miami No. 12.
“The one metric we had to fall back on was the head-to-head,” said College Football Playoff selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek while appearing on ESPN’s coverage on Sunday.
Yurachek said the committee previously felt Notre Dame was more deserving than BYU and that BYU was more deserving than Miami. However, after BYU suffered a loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday, Miami jumped BYU. And upon jumping BYU, the conversation between Notre Dame and Miami then came down to the head-to-head result.
“We always had someone between them,” Yurachek said regarding Notre Dame previously being ranked higher than Miami.
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The Fighting Irish concluded the campaign on a 10-game win streak. Notre Dame ranked inside the committee’s top-10 rankings every week starting Nov. 4. Miami, however, ranked 12th or lower in each of those weekly results.
ESPN college football analyst Joey Galloway called the committee’s decision “very strange” because the committee consistently ranked Notre Dame above Miami. If the committee was going to flip Miami ahead of Notre Dame, they should have done so in their final rankings (Dec. 2) before championship weekend, Galloway said.
“We had two teams sitting on the couch that flipped in rankings,” Galloway said on ESPN’s coverage. “Their resumes have not changed a lick (since last week).”
Legendary college football coach Nick Saban had a problem with the committee’s decision, in large part because he feels it shows another change in grading criteria. Saban believes Notre Dame and BYU should have earned College Football Playoff berths over Tulane and James Madison.
“I just think there was one team left out that shouldn’t have been left out,” Saban said on ESPN.
Fellow analyst Reece Davis understood the committee’s decision to rank Miami over Notre Dame given the head-to-head result in September. Davis shared he thinks this year’s bracket and decision-making will be talked about forever.
