College Football Playoff chair confronted over Miami-Notre Dame decision

The head of the College Football Playoff was asked about the selection committee's decision to include Miami over Notre Dame despite the Hurricanes being lower ranked this whole time.

Why the College Football Playoff included Miami over Notre Dame despite the Hurricanes being lower ranked this whole time. | Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame had been ranked ahead of Miami in the College Football Playoff rankings until the selection committee had a change of heart at the last moment on selection day itself, allowing the Hurricanes to make the playoff while leaving the Irish out.

The decision between Notre Dame and Miami was going to be the most consequential facing the selectors, and their final choice was met with some questions.

Not perhaps over what team they finally selected, but the timing of their decision to swap the Canes and Irish in the rankings at this particular time.

Why did Miami jump Notre Dame?

“Miami was the loser of two of three when they entered the poll at 18, and they were in close proximity to Louisville at the time, who I believe was below them at the 21st or 22nd spot, and we didn’t use the head-to-head metric to compare Miami and Louisville, a team that had beaten Miami,” Yurachek said on Sunday’s selection show. 

.@CFBPlayoff Selection Committee chair Hunter Yurachek breaks down what went into the decision for 10-seed Miami to make the playoffs 👀 pic.twitter.com/DFo7K18Wna

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) December 7, 2025

“But not until they got in close proximity and side-by-side with the move of BYU that we were able to evaluate just those two teams side-by-side. We always had someone between them, whether it was previously Alabama and BYU, and just BYU in the last week.”

More: The College Football Playoff bracket for 2025

Miami was ranked lower than Notre Dame until now

The rationale the committee used was that Miami’s earlier lower ranking was justified based on its performance since losing to Notre Dame, and that Notre Dame’s higher position was based on its play since its own 0-2 start.

But in the interim, Yurachek argued that the loss by BYU in the Big 12 Championship Game put the Hurricanes and Irish side-by-side again in the rankings and warranted another evaluation of the teams’ playoff claims.

“The first move in that [decision-making process] was we felt like the way BYU performed in their [Big 12] championship game with a second loss to Texas Tech in a similar fashion was worthy of Miami moving them in the rankings,” Yurachek said. 

“And once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, then we had that side-by-side comparison that everybody has been hungering for with Notre Dame and Miami. And when you looked at those teams on paper, they’re almost equal in their schedule strength, their common opponent, the results against their common opponent.”

Head-to-head wins in the end

The difference between them was clear. Miami beat Notre Dame on the field. 

“The one metric that we had to fall back on again was the head to head,” Yurachek said. 

“I charged the committee members to go back and watch that game again, the Miami -Notre Dame game because it was so far back, and we got some interesting debate from our coaches on what that game looked like as they watched it.

“With that in mind, we gave Miami the nod over Notre Dame in that 10th spot.”