Hoodwinked: CFP Committee's "Logic" Spoils Notre Dame's Championship Hopes
- Liam Gaudet
- 35 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The results are in. Alabama and Miami in, Notre Dame out. Despite having the Irish as a member of the field a mere five days ago, they're now on the outside looking in. What in the hell happened? Where's the logic? Well, the "logic" employed by the committee is flawed. And a subtle switch they made in the penultimate installment of the CFP rankings set Notre Dame up for failure.
Photo by Tyler Wong
Now, to state the obvious, Notre Dame lost two football games, and the only reason they find themselves in this position is because of that very fact. When you leave yourself vulnerable to chaos by sowing the seeds of doubt in your resume, you can't be too surprised when chaos rears its ugly head at you.
However, when there is a clear agenda set up by the committee at the 12th hour of the season that defies their entire argument up to this point, it's simply an inconceivable and irrevocable indictment on the state of college football, full stop. Let's get into what exactly the committee did this week to set up Notre Dame to fall on the sword.
To start, the Irish were ranked ahead of Alabama and Miami prior to rivalry week, the last data point on the resumes of both Notre Dame and Miami, with Notre Dame ranked 9th, Alabama ranked 10th, and Miami ranked 12th. Notre Dame and Miami both handled business, with the Irish winning decisively on the road by 29 points, and the Hurricanes winning by 31, albeit by running up the score needlessly with their starters in the game. At Jordan Hare in the Iron Bowl? Well, Alabama had just choked away a 17-point lead against a 5-win Auburn team. They would ultimately win in what would be described as a "gutsy" performance by committee chairman Hunter Yurachek. With that win, Alabama, which has two losses and is sitting behind Notre Dame, would face Georgia in the SEC championship. Miami, Notre Dame, and Alabama would all finish the season 10-2.
Despite another unimpressive performance in November for Alabama, a stretch that saw the Crimson Tide finish 3-1, with a loss to Oklahoma and two sloppy performances against LSU and Auburn, the wheels were already in motion behind closed doors to seal Notre Dame's fate. The release of the penultimate rankings sewered the Irish, and everyone with eyes could see it.
Alabama (+1)
Notre Dame (-1)
BYU
Miami
After limping past Auburn in unimpressive fashion, the Tide inexplicably jumped Notre Dame in Tuesday's rankings. According to Yurachek, the fourth-down call to put the Tide ahead in the Iron Bowl was enough to sway committee members to swap the two teams. This was in spite of Notre Dame's 29-point victory over Stanford. In hindsight, this set up a championship weekend scenario that gave Notre Dame zero chance to make the playoff. If Alabama were to win, and BYU were to lose, this would place Notre Dame and Miami in a direct head-to-head scenario. The outside noise from the ACC, ESPN, and other talking heads had put enough pressure on the committee to swap the two teams. Notre Dame's only perceived hope was for both Alabama and BYU to lose and drop, ensuring that both Miami and Notre Dame would slot in.
Alabama was obliterated by the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, losing by three touchdowns in a game that saw Alabama amass -3 total rushing yards. By far the most unimpressive and inept showing all season. BYU would get clobbered by Texas Tech for the second time, ending any hope for the Cougars to make the field. It appeared to be a best-case scenario for Notre Dame, and one that would see both Miami and Notre Dame make the playoff, with Alabama being excluded after an abhorrent month of football. It was common sense.
Instead, the selection committee used their trump card, didn't drop Alabama at all, and swapped Miami and Notre Dame after BYU fell in the rankings. While we're at it, how come BYU dropped, and Alabama didn't? Well, the answer is simple - to ensure Notre Dame never had a chance. The play for the committee since Tuesday was to unseed Notre Dame. What started as a subtle swap between the Irish and the Crimson Tide was the first domino to ensure Notre Dame would not make the field. Alabama was protected because of their conference championship, BYU wasn't solely so they can move Miami up, and now Miami had head-to-head, so they swapped the teams. An incredibly gutless move that defied all other logic displayed by the committee, which had insisted that Miami and Notre Dame had already been compared.
The real travesty was the committee bending the knee and not sticking to their criteria throughout the last month. It was unfair to punish BYU and not to punish Alabama. It was unfair to call Notre Dame the better team up until Tuesday, and then arbitrarily switch them with a Miami team that lost two games in the middle of the season after saying the head-to-head was only one data point to consider and not the whole story. The playoff committee has completely shifted the goal posts and caved to the pressure of outside noise.
The outside noise is an entirely different story. The lobbying from ESPN pundits yesterday during games was blatant and ridiculous. Kirk Herbstreit watched Alabama get absolutely dogwalked by Georgia to punctuate one of the worst months for any of the teams in consideration, and then decided to throw Notre Dame on the chopping block while the entire country watched. It's one of the most shameless things I've ever seen from a network. Now, ESPN doesn't get to line their pockets with Notre Dame's bowl game money, as the Irish have opted out - and rightfully so.
The bottom line is that Notre Dame shouldn't have lost two games. But the biggest takeaway should be that the system is broken. Notre Dame will miss the playoff, robbing one of the best 12 teams in the country of an opportunity to play for a national championship.
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