The College Football Playoff selection committee loves them some Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Forget the fact that their best win is over a now 8-3 USC team. Forget the fact that their Power Four schedule
includes titans such as Purdue, Arkansas, and Boston College, ALL WINLESS IN CONFERENCE PLAY – and the latter of whom they struggled with, by the way in a 25-10 win.
No, this Notre Dame team has been crushing largely shitty foes, and therefore they must be amazing and better than the Miami Hurricanes.
You know when else Notre Dame was amazing and better than Miami? In the weeks leading up to the 2025 college football opening weekend. Everyone talked about it. The Irish were going to cruise by the Hurricanes, who were replacing so, so much lost talent on the offense side of the ball.
Carson Beck missed the spring game. How can he handle such a good defense from the jump without a full offseason? Will Miami’s facelifted defense and secondary be able to handle an offense as good as Notre Dame’s right at the jump? Many said no. Miami had so many supposed questions coming into the game that the Irish were a common pick by experts and were favored by Vegas going in.
There was a belief that Notre Dame was better. And guess what? They weren’t.
Miami physically controlled the Irish for four quarters and led by double digits for much of the game, building a 24-7 lead at one point. And when the clock hit all zeroes, the scoreboard read Miami 27, Notre Dame 24.
After the game, no one called it a fluke. No one said Miami got lucky or didn’t deserve to win. No, Miami destroyed the Irish in the trenches. One Notre Dame lineman had a 2.4 Pro Football Focus pass blocking grade. TWO. POINT. FOUR!!!
The Hurricanes bucked a belief that was held about the two teams.
And now, months later, that same belief is still there. And unfortunately, it’s held by the College Football Selection committee. The Irish have rolled through some truly rotten competition. And they’ve won the games they should have, beating USC at home by 10 and beating Pitt in impressive fashion 37-15. Those performances were undeniably impressive.
But careful about throwing around the b word: believe. We believe so-and-so is better. And that’s what ESPN’s Heather Dinich said this week – that the committee just thinks Notre Dame is the better team.
That’s what many thought back on August 30. Belief is a good thing to have in yourself. It’s good to believe in those you love, trust, and care about. But what you believe when it comes to hypotheticals, intangibles, and things off the field will get you a cup of coffee – with two dollars.
Many believed in the Irish over Miami. The Hurricanes proved that was a false belief. And now people want to make that mistake again. It’s not fair, and unfortunately, it’s looking like Miami won’t get the chance to prove their mistake a second time.
In just about every other sport between teams of equal records, the winner of the head-to-head matchup is THE FIRST tiebreaker used. One of the central reasons is that it rewards what happened on the field and rightly holds the actual competition result to the highest standard.
That’s how things should be here. The Irish and Hurricanes are 12th and 15th in strength of record. They have the same record. They’ve both been winning lately. And now they’re in the same pod of consideration. And let’s also not forget that Miami beat that same Florida State team that Alabama got waxed by, if we’re talking about teams in the same 9-12 pod.
But the committee has shown it doesn’t care about its own stated criteria, and that it doesn’t believe that Miami’s win over the Irish should matter because it goes against their belief that Notre Dame is better.
They say seeing is believing. Miami showed millions of eyeballs when these teams actually played who was better. Unfortunately, it appears these committee members just don’t want to look.
And that’s a horrendous thing for the integrity of this sport.
