Is Notre Dame Overrated in Latest CFP Rankings?

For the many Irish haters, this was unacceptable. How could a team that lost its two most difficult games and got its best win at home over No. 16 USC (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten) be ranked No. 9? Moreover, Notre Dame came in ahead of both No. 10 Alabama (8-2, 6-1 SEC) and No. 14 Miami (8-2, 4-2 ACC). Is this fair?

Cases like these always require far more nuance than X/formerly Twitter allows for. There are always people screaming into the wind about how Notre Dame is overrated. It’s a feature of college football. You love to love them or love to hate them. But, the Irish skeptics might have some merit this time. Alabama and Miami should both be moved up one spot to No. 9 and No. 10, respectively. As for Notre Dame, they should be at No. 11. This might seem harsh, but at some point head-to-head results have to matter.

Miami

The Hurricanes beat Notre Dame the opening week of the season. They got after CJ Carr all night and the offense shined against Notre Dame’s vaunted font seven. There’s no denying the teams have gone on diverging paths since then, but why would Miami or any other team schedule difficult nonconference games if they will be rendered irrelevant by the CFP Committee? Miami has gotten back on track since their two losses as well, crushing both Syracuse (3-7, 1-6)  and NC State (5-5, 2-4). These are not jaw dropping wins, but their placement behind Notre Dame is proof that this committee has no interest in head-to-head matchup results. No. 17 Texas (7-3, 4-2 SEC) find themselves in a similar position as they are now outside the playoff in large part due to their week one loss to No. 1 Ohio State (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten). 

Alabama

On the Alabama front, the Crimson Tide have a vastly better resume than the Irish. Alabama beat No. 4 Georgia (9-1, 7-1 SEC) in Athens. This was the opening act of a stretch in which the Crimson Tide beat four straight ranked SEC opponents. The only place where Notre Dame’s resume is better than Alabama’s is in their losses. Both have a close loss at home to a highly-ranked opponent, but the Crimson Tide do have the embarrassing loss at Florida State (5-5, 2-5 ACC). This loss is much worse than the Irish’s 27-24 loss at Miami. But that’s not enough to justify placing Notre Dame above Alabama. 

The Crimson Tide’s loss to No. 8 Oklahoma (8-2, 4-2) was not an indictment on Alabama. They were largely what they’ve been on all year—a one dimensional offense. Ty Simpson was excellent, but the run game was nowhere to be found. They just happened to face a defense that was good enough to expose these flaws. Thus, their drop from No. 4 to No. 10 was outrageous. There is no win on the Irish’s schedule that is even close to being as impressive as the Crimson Tide’s win over Georgia. 

There will always be Notre Dame haters. And they are not always right. Many of them have suggested that the Irish shouldn’t even be in the playoff, which is lunacy. But they clearly are getting a little bit of undeserved respect from the committee.