There were two spots left, yet three very similar teams had strong arguments for those spots. The College Football Playoff committee had an incredibly tough choice to make, knowing that whatever decision it made was going to produce controversy.
In its final decision, the committee ultimately decided to rank Alabama at No. 9, Miami at No. 10 and Notre Dame at No. 11, therefore making the Irish the first team out of the College Football Playoff. There are certainly ways to justify these rankings, but there are also certain questions that remain unanswered.
Both Miami and Notre Dame had 10-2 records, but Miami got the nod over Notre Dame because of the result of their head-to-head matchup in Week 1. Miami suffered losses to two unranked ACC opponents in SMU and Louisville, and Notre Dame was its only ranked win of the year. On the other side, the Irish suffered losses to two playoff teams in Miami and No. 7 Texas A&M in their first two games of the season, but they won their final 10 matchups by an average of 29.7 points per game while also beating a ranked team in USC. Both teams had incredibly valid arguments, but when they were ranked next to each other in the final rankings, the committee decided to pick Miami.
No. 9 Alabama finished the season at 10-3, being the first three-loss, non-conference champion to make the 12-team playoff. While it does have three losses, it is hard to dispute the claim that Alabama had a more impressive resume than both Notre Dame and Miami. Of the Crimson Tide’s 13 games, five were against teams that finished the year in the top 25. They went 3-2 in those games, beating Vanderbilt, Missouri and Georgia in the regular season, but ultimately falling to two playoff teams in Oklahoma and Georgia in the SEC Championship yesterday.
The main argument made for Alabama and Miami making it over Notre Dame is that Alabama had a more impressive resume than Notre Dame, and Miami had the head-to-head advantage over the Irish. On the surface, that seems justified, but the process that the committee took to get there is a bit questionable.
The confusion in these rankings rests in the inconsistency in the evaluation of the teams that lost their conference championship games. For example, Ohio State dropped from No. 1 to No. 2, the team jumping it being its victorious opponent, Indiana. This decision seems to be more so rewarding Indiana for its victory, not punishing Ohio State for its loss. Additionally, Alabama lost the SEC Championship in a game where it looked incredibly uncompetitive, yet it did not drop at all in the rankings. However, the same could not be said for BYU as it lost the Big 12 Championship game and was punished for it, dropping one spot in the final rankings. BYU dropping from No. 11 to No. 12 ultimately pitted Notre Dame and Miami against each other for that No. 10 spot, and the committee decided to give the spot to Miami because of the result of their Week 1 matchup.
It’s hard to punish teams for losing a conference championship game, a game that other teams didn’t have to play. Knocking Alabama out of the playoffs for that reason seems unfair, but that protection Alabama received did not apply to BYU. The question remains: Why were Ohio State and Alabama protected, but not BYU?
Another question fans are wondering is how much of a factor did Duke’s win over Virginia play in these rankings. Had Virginia won, it would surely have been a top-five-ranked conference champion being ranked at No. 17 heading into the matchup, higher than both Tulane and James Madison, the fourth and fifth-highest-ranked conference champions. However, Duke, which finished the year 8-5, upset Virginia, making it so the ACC champion would not likely receive a bid to the College Football Playoff. It is a fair question to ask if the committee was comfortable with a playoff bracket that included no ACC teams, and how much of a role that played in the decision to include Miami.
It’s also hard not to wonder why this decision comparing Notre Dame and Miami wasn’t made in the rankings last Tuesday. Both Notre Dame and Miami were idle during conference championship week, and it’s hard to see how BYU’s loss in the Big 12 title game changed things that much for Notre Dame.
As tough of a pill as it is to swallow for Fighting Irish fans, there is nothing that can be done. The committee has made its decision. However, the inconsistency in these decisions is certainly frustrating for college football fans, as it is not very clear what factors the committee considers most important when deciding these questions.