Charles Barkley sends strong message after historic college football program's CFP snub

Hall of Famer and ESPN basketball analyst Charles Barkley has an opinion on most everything, and that includes the College Football Playoff committee's decision to leave 10-2 Notre Dame off of the 12-team bracket.

Barkley and ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale discussed the Fighting Irish's CFP snub while calling the Indiana-Kentucky game on Saturday night.

"I was disappointed, but you could see it coming in the last couple polls," Barkley said. "They were creeping up on Miami. And my biggest problem with the whole thing, everybody’s talked about head-to-head. First of all, that was in August.

“They were very close games [against] A&M and at Miami, but your team is not the same in August as it is in December. Notre Dame is playing as well as anybody in the country other than Indiana and probably Ohio State. And I don’t want to leave out the [Georgia] Bulldogs. Kirby Smart, that man can really coach.”

Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Aneyas Williams (22) celebrates with Notre Dame Fighting Irish tight end Ty Washington (7) | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Notre Dame's exclusion from the bracket after winning its final 10 games all by double-digit margins and being ranked ahead of Miami (10-2) in every CFP poll until the final one, even though neither the Irish nor Hurricanes played in that final week before the bracket was set, will go down as one of the biggest playoff controversies.

Ultimately, it came down to Miami's 27-24 home win over Notre Dame in Week 1, a field goal with 1:04 remaining.

Miami supporters clamored and complained all along that the Hurricanes should have been ranked ahead of the Irish, given the same record, well before the final bracket was set. But the teams' seasons went very different directions after that Week 1 meeting.

Notre Dame lost its first two games by a combined four points, including a 41-40 Week 2 loss to Texas A&M (another CFP team), before reeling off those 10 straight wins, most in dominant fashion.

Miami lost twice in a three-game span to unranked Louisville and SMU before regrouping and finishing strong.

The first CFP rankings came out after that second loss, with Miami landing at No. 18 and Notre Dame at No. 10. Because the teams weren't close in their overall ranking, the head-to-head result didn't factor in at the time, and that remained the CFP committee's explanation even as the teams moved closer and closer in the rankings.

Ultimately, they were two spots apart at No. 10/12, separated by BYU, entering last weekend, when the Cougars got blown out by Texas Tech, essentially forcing the committee to consider Notre Dame and Miami side by side. Others have suggested that both teams deserved to be in over 10-3 Alabama, which lost 28-7 to Georgia in the SEC championship game.

Notre Dame has not taken the snub well and declined to participate in a bowl game as a result.

No. 10-seed Miami will play at No. 7 Texas A&M in the first round of the playoffs on Dec. 20.