If Notre Dame went head-to-head with Alabama, Oklahoma or Miami (Fla.) this weekend, FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt would pick the Fighting Irish to win each of those games. In fact, he doesn’t disagree with the College Football Playoff committee’s notion that Notre Dame is better than at least two of those teams.
However, Klatt also believes that the CFP committee ranking Notre Dame (No. 9) above Alabama (No. 10) and Miami (No. 12) could spell trouble for the future of college football.
“The hard part here is [the committee is] walking themselves into a trap, and there are consequences for what they’re doing,” Klatt said on his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show.” “We can see that Alabama is vastly superior as it relates to résumé and three spots away is a team [Notre Dame] lost to head-to-head. By [the committee’s] own admission, those teams are now in the cohort that’s being evaluated against one another. That still didn’t carry the day.
“That could be problematic. You can tell me this weekend you could pick Notre Dame to win the game. That’s fine. But you still have to honor the games that have been played. To some extent, you have to look up and honor what the players do on the field. I get it, Miami’s résumé isn’t quite what Notre Dame’s is and their losses aren’t great. … But this is a problem. Games that get played need to be honored. I’ve been consistent about that.”
Should Notre Dame be ranked ahead of Alabama? 🤔
Entering the final week of the regular season, Notre Dame, Alabama and Miami all sit at 9-2. But the Crimson Tide arguably have the strongest résumé of the three teams, holding the ninth-toughest strength of schedule in the nation, while the Fighting Irish are 34th in strength of schedule and the Hurricanes are 48th. Alabama’s also 3-1 against teams in the CFP’s top 25, while Notre Dame is 2-2 against the same group.
Yet, Notre Dame was still ranked ahead of Alabama by one spot and three spots ahead of Miami despite its loss to the Hurricanes back in September. Of course, the Fighting Irish have been a better team as of late, winning their last nine games with an average margin of victory of nearly 30 points.
While Klatt said that ranking Notre Dame ahead of Alabama and Miami is consistent with the committee’s idea of valuing eye test over résumé, he also said it’s the only reason why the Fighting Irish should be ranked above those two teams.
“The résumé isn’t close. If you go by résumé, which previous committees have done, then Alabama would be over Notre Dame. But this committee wants to value Notre Dame,” Klatt said. “I’m not necessarily disagreeing with this because if you said to me, neutral site, who wins next weekend: Alabama or Notre Dame? I would pick Notre Dame. I think the committee is using that as the last resort. Who are you picking in a game this weekend? Probably Notre Dame. I’d pick them over Oklahoma, by the way, who is ranked one spot ahead of them. I would pick them over BYU. I would pick them over Miami, and I know they lost to Miami earlier in the year.”
The Playoff Committee is heading for a trap + a Chaos Scenario for Rivalry Week
Still, Klatt worries that if Notre Dame makes the CFP over Alabama and Miami while having a similar record, teams might take the path of least resistance moving forward to keep their playoff hopes intact.
“It’s not a great spot for the committee. But they’re putting themselves in a corner where not honoring head-to-head is a problem, and that’s a problem for the future of college football,” Klatt said. “They’re also walking into this trap of devaluing non-conference matchups. This is also a problem. Michigan at 15 is basically at the bottom of all the two-loss teams … that’s a bit problematic because of the loss they had [at Oklahoma].
“If we want to encourage blue bloods to keep these games on the schedule and encourage them to schedule more of these non-conference games, we cannot bring the hammer down on them in the playoff committee room.”
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