The College Football Playoff are incredibly fun to be a part of. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, the program was left out by the CFP selection committee. However, Alabama and Miami are playing for a chance to go on a run all the way to the National Championship. Why is this?
The fact is that the selection committee ranked Alabama and Miami higher than Notre Dame. This will surely be controversial as there is a case for Notre Dame to be good enough whether it’s because of head to head matters or overall resume. Still, it wasn’t enough for the historic program to fit into the 12-team bracket.
This is yet another example of the CFP selection committee making controversial calls, as many analysts thought Notre Dame was arguably a top 10 team to end the season. However, the fact that the Fighting Irish lost to Miami might have been the definitive factor to put the Hurricanes in. Rules to get in must be clearer.
It’s a heartbreaking moment for Notre Dame
The fact that not only was Miami in and Notre Dame excluded, but Alabama at 10-3 also got in over the Fighting Irish must be devastating for the program. Alabama also ended with a blowout loss in the SEC Championship game to Georgia. Apparently, that wasn’t enough for the selection committee to give Notre Dame the nod.
CJ Carr of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Alabama is the first three-loss team to make the CFP Playoff as an at-large participant. Also, Notre Dame was ahead of Miami for every playoff rankings iteration this year despite losing to them. All in all, this is as crushing as it could get for Notre Dame.
see also
CFP final rankings and bracket revealed: Which teams are playing the 2025 College Football Playoffs?
Other teams might also feel snubbed
While programs like Tulane and James Madison are in the CFP Playoff bracket, others like Notre Dame, Texas, BYU and Vanderbilt were left out. Records aside, there is an argument that all these four teams are better than Tulane and James Madison, but this just proves one of two things: the selection committee must change the way the teams are ranked, or the playoffs must have 16 teams as opposed to only 12 programs.
After all, the SBC and the AAC are not exactly the best conferences in College Football. The tiebreakers are also bringing a heavy dose of controversy as they are too complex. Analysts are very eager to make it simpler in a more conventional ranking system.
