What CFP Chair Hunter Yurachek Said About Notre Dame's Playoff Chances

Notre Dame has been at the heart of College Football Playoff debates for weeks, and a new set of rankings released Tuesday further sparked conversation.

The Irish had been ranked No. 9 the previous three weeks, including being one spot ahead of Alabama for the last two weeks. Over the weekend, Alabama squeaked out a 27-20 win over a 5-7 Auburn team, and clinched a spot in the SEC title game thanks to Texas A&M's loss to Texas. Meanwhile, Notre Dame won 49-20 one the road against a 4-8 Stanford team.

Based on those results and how the committee had previously ranked the teams, one would think Notre Dame would have stayed ahead of Alabama. But the committee moved Alabama to No. 9 and dropped the Irish to No. 10.

That sets up a situation where No. 11 BYU could steal Notre Dame's bid, should the Cougars defeat Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game. Even if BYU loses, Notre Dame may not be fully secure just yet, as they'd be directly compared to Miami, who beat the Irish back in August. Notre Dame has been ranked ahead of Miami for weeks, but the committee proved Tuesday that nothing is set in stone.

CJ Carr Notre Dame Football — Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr (13) celebrates a touchdown against Southern California at Notre Dame Stadium. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Here's how College Football Playoff committee chair Hunter Yurachek answered questions related to the Irish.

Q: Can a team outside the current top-12 that does not play in a conference championship game move into the field?

Yurachek: "Yes. Idle teams can move based on the results of the championship games. There may be something that happens in a championship game that impacts an idle team, whether that's their strength of schedule or some other datapoint that we use, or there could be a team that suffers a significant loss in a title game. We don't try to predict what's going to happen, but yes, idle teams can move within the rankings as we rerank them one last time this weekend."

Q: Why did Alabama move ahead of Notre Dame after a 27-20 win over a 5-7 Auburn team?

Yurachek: "That debate between Notre Dame and Alabama has been one of the fiercest debates for the last three weeks, and it really has split our committee room. We've got people that thought highly of Alabama -- we all think highly of both of those teams, but some are very much in Alabama's camp, some are very much in Notre Dame's camp."

"It's just Alabama in a rivalry game on the road. Auburn has been an extremely tough place to play for many teams this year, such as Georgia and Vanderbilt, and the committee gave Alabama a little respect for winning that game, getting out early 17-0. The game got tied again, and Alabama, a gutsy call there late in the game to go for it on 4th and 2 and then getting a turnover again late in the game. The committee just felt like that was enough of a win, of a metric, to push Alabama ahead of Notre Dame."

Jeremiyah Love Notre Dame Football — Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Jeremiyah Love (4) runs against the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium. | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Q: Why is Notre Dame ranked two spots ahead of Miami, and does the committee take the head-to-head more into consideration if those two teams are back-to-back in the rankings or if there's a team in between them like there is now?

Yurachek: "The head-to-head is one datapoint that the committee will use. It's obviously easier to use that datapoint when the teams are back-to-back as opposed to when they're separated by a team or two or three, as has been the case."

"Notre Dame is the winners of 10 straight. During that 10-game winning streak, they've outscored their opponents roughly 440 to 143. They've been very consistent offensively in how they run the ball, in how they pass the ball, very explosive offense. I think they're third in explosive plays."

"Then you've got a BYU team between them that's 11-1. Their schedule strength and record strength metrics are really, really high. They've got a win over 15th ranked Utah and a win over 18th ranked Arizona, and their metrics rank really, really high, as well."

"Then you've got Miami, who when we had our first poll, they came into our poll losers of two of three games, and so they were inserted at 18. They've really climbed faster than any other team during the past four or five weeks, up six spots. They've won four consecutive games. Carson Beck has been phenomenal, completing 80 percent of his passes at roughly 1,100 yards and 11 TDs during that time."

"But the committee still felt like right now, Notre Dame deserves to be ranked ahead of BYU and Miami, and BYU deserves to be ranked ahead of Miami."

Notre Dame Football — Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price (24) celebrates with wide receiver Malachi Fields (0) after a touchdown against Syracuse at Notre Dame Stadium. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Q: Head-to-head is apparently being honored when ranking Oklahoma versus Alabama, Georgia versus Ole Miss, and Texas versus Vanderbilt. What's the difference between the Miami and Notre Dame situation? Why isn't the head-to-head being honored there? What's the big difference between those teams in the committee's mind?

Yurachek: "Yeah, the head-to-head, again, is just one of the tools that we use to evaluate the teams. If we were just comparing Miami and Notre Dame side by side, it's a little bit easier to use that comparison. But we're not comparing Notre Dame and Miami side by side. We're comparing really this whole -- we've been comparing Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU and Miami collectively and evaluating those teams and how they look."

"When you put all of those teams together, the committee has felt for the past several weeks that Notre Dame, now again the winners of 10 straight, and really dominating on both sides of the ball in those 10 wins, and then BYU an 11-1 team with really strong strength of schedule and strength metrics, wins over a couple of top-25 teams, deserved to be ranked higher than Miami. So that's why we have that order of Miami 10 and BYU 11."

"Miami, again, they entered our first poll losers of two of three games and they entered in at 18. The committee has given a great deal of respect to Miami, bringing them from 18 to 12 this week after winning four consecutive games and looking really good in doing so, and they looked really good this past weekend against Pittsburgh, but it was not and has not been enough for them to get ahead of BYU and/or Notre Dame."

Q: Does the committee feel that Notre Dame's resume is significantly better than Miami's?

Yurachek: "They're separated by just a few spots in the ranking. I don't think you could say that the resumes really of any of these teams in the top 13 or 14 are significantly better than one another. We've got really good teams. It has been significant, and I mean significant, debate. We went well over our normal time today in trying to make sure that we got especially 9, 10, 11 and 12 right."