The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff field was revealed on Sunday, and the biggest headline came from who was left off the list: Notre Dame.
Despite spending multiple weeks ranked ahead of Miami in the official CFP rankings, the Fighting Irish were ultimately passed over in favor of the Hurricanes, primarily because of Miami’s season-opening victory over Notre Dame in South Bend.
Both programs finished the regular season 10-2, but the head-to-head result proved decisive when the committee made its final call.
Moments after the bracket dropped, College GameDay analyst and seven-time national champion Nick Saban shared his strong disapproval of the selection outcome, which saw Miami earn the No. 10 seed, Alabama hold steady at No. 9, and Notre Dame excluded entirely.
“I think the fact of the matter is all three of those teams should’ve gotten in and deserved to be in the College Football Playoff,” Saban said. “And for years now we have kept tweaking the criteria of how we select teams into the playoffs… but really I think you’re going to have two teams in the playoffs, no disrespect to the group of five that are nowhere near ranked as highly as teams that are much better than them.
“To me this has got to be devastating for Notre Dame’s team, not to get the opportunity to play in the playoffs.. I’m happy for the teams that got in but I just think there was one team that was left out, that I just think shouldn’t have been left out.”
With the No. 10 seed secured, Miami will open postseason play on the road against No. 7 Texas A&M. The winner of that matchup will advance to the Cotton Bowl to take on second-seeded Ohio State.
Notre Dame slid to No. 11 in the final rankings, with BYU right behind at No. 12. The last two at-large berths instead went to a pair of Group of Five conference champions: Tulane and James Madison, both of whom earned automatic bids and will open the playoff away from home.
Once again, college football has been hit with a ton of backlash for its College Football Playoff decision-making process.
It will be interesting to see if any changes are made to the process next season.
