Analysis Why did Notre Dame’s August loss cost the Irish a playoff spot in December?
As it turned out, the most important game impacting the most important decision the College Football Playoff selection committee made in 2025 took place in August.
There is nothing particularly wrong with that. All the games are supposed to count.
And yet, it is no stretch to say that line of thinking would a) only make sense to people who don’t watch pro sports, which don’t use selection committees, and b) still not make sense to anyone who cheers for Notre Dame, who were told for weeks leading up to this that its Aug. 31 loss to Miami didn’t mean anything.
Among the conclusions from Sunday’s head-scratcher of a bracket release — which dropped Notre Dame by one spot and out of the playoff even though it didn’t play last week — is that there is no reason to listen to anything the committee says over its five weeks of breathless Tuesday night updates doubling as programming that come out before the final bracket.
“Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports. “Why put these young student-athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them, having not played a game in two weeks, and then a group of people in a room shatter their dreams without explanation?”
Point made. Now, here are some other winners and losers from the weekend:
Winner: Alabama
The Crimson Tide had the nation’s sixth-toughest strength of schedule and also beat Georgia at Georgia in September. That is why they are in.
All the rest of it was noise, and that includes the ugly loss to those same Bulldogs in the SEC title game.
In that 28-7 loss, Alabama gained 82 yards through the first 44:50 of the game, and rushed for minus-3 yards, the first time Alabama didn’t gain a yard on the ground since 1968. Making the field despite all of this doesn’t speak highly of …
Loser: Conference championship games
It feels like a shame that on the week the sport mourns the death of groundbreaking SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, one of his most transformative inventions, the conference title game, is outliving its usefulness.
Duke won the Atlantic Coast Conference game, but hasn’t been ranked since 2014 so it didn’t make the playoff.
Alabama? Its loss didn’t hurt the Tide, which stayed at No. 9, or help the Bulldogs, who stayed at No. 3.
Indiana beat Ohio State 13-10 in a Big Ten barnburner, which resulted only in those two flip-flopping the No. 1-2 spots and maybe building an appetite for a rematch that actually means something in the national final.
BYU’s lopsided loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 matchup hurt the Cougars and could be another argument to get rid of the games because, after all, why should some teams (BYU) be penalized for qualifying to play for a title while others (Alabama) are not?
Loser: Notre Dame-USC rivalry
One reason the committee used to justify snubbing Notre Dame was its 44th-ranked strength of schedule compared to Alabama at No. 6.
In related news, there is speculation about USC not wanting to renew the ancient home-and-home rivalry with Notre Dame because why should the Trojans commit to a hard road game every other year when the competition is lining up Group of Five teams for their nonconference schedule?
Maybe Notre Dame — clearly hurt this year by its scheduling agreement with the weaker-than-usual ACC, along with its baked-in rivalries with Navy, Stanford and USC — should consider dumping the Trojans and trying to pick up an Alabama or Ole Miss every now and then — they did host Texas A&M this season but hey — to beef up that SOS.
(asterisk)Winner: Little guys
No. 11 Tulane and No. 12 James Madison won their conferences and did what they needed to do to make the field, so give credit to teams ranked 54 and 28, respectively, in the ESPN Football Power Index for that.
But here’s the asterisk: football isn’t basketball, the 12-team playoff isn’t March Madness and the idea of Cinderella capturing everyone’s fancy over a magical monthlong run in this sport still feels like a stretch. BetMGM Sportsbook opened Tulane as a 16 1/2-point underdog against Ole Miss and JMU as a 20 1/2-point dog against Oregon.
Last year, Boise State lost 31-14 in the first round and that was with star running back Ashton Jeanty. In 2023, TCU — yes, of the Big 12 but still saddled with the fairy tale role — lost to Georgia 65-7 in a four-team setup.
Upsets aren’t unthinkable, and they are what make sports so much fun. But remember, if some in the SEC had their way, they would eliminate most or all the automatic berths to move closer to placing the country’s 12 (or 16 or 24) “best” teams in the bracket.
That, of course, would place even more faith in the selection committee, which on Sunday proved once again that finding the perfect process can never be done.
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