It was just a few weeks ago that there was a heated Twitter war between Notre Dame and Texas Tech fans following comments from Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire. With both teams projected to make the College Football Playoff, many have hoped that the two teams would face off during the postseason. It would be an unlikely matchup between one of the most historic programs in all of College Football and an up-and-comer that is slowly building a consistent winner.   

With that competitive hatred and harsh words on social media, not many Fighting Irish fans probably would have thought they would be rooting for Texas Tech at some point this season. That is exactly the case this weekend with head coach Marcus Freeman’s squad hoping to solidify their standing in the College Football Playoff. Without playing a game, it is going to be about observing this weekend and hoping that things play out to their favor.

On Tuesday night, the playoff committee put out its updated rankings for the playoffs. Notre Dame came in at No. 10 on that ranking, down one spot from the previous week. With five conferences guaranteed a representative, the Fighting Irish would have the last at-large spot in the field with where they currently sit, with Alabama jumping in front of them this week. That means that the team is going to need to hope that the BYU Cougars lay a goose egg this weekend.

December 2️⃣ College Football Playoff Selection Committee Rankings#CFBPlayoff ?? pic.twitter.com/6M4RcbbaV6

— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 3, 2025

Rooting for Texas Tech

Who does BYU play this weekend, you ask? You got it correct – the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Big 12 Championship game will feature the two teams, and it’ll be their second meeting of the season. Texas Tech was able to come out with a 26-7 victory in that one, even though they didn’t play their sharpest game. Notre Dame fans will be hoping for a repeat performance to not allow the Cougars to jump into the fold. If they do win, BYU would get that Big 12 auto bid, while the Red Raiders will most likely still finish in front of the Irish.

Without the threat of BYU, Notre Dame will most likely make the playoff field. There is a chance that the Irish could also jump up a spot if Alabama loses to Georgia in the SEC Championship game, but the playoff committee has said in the past that they don’t punish teams for losing in conference championship games. There should be some questions about whether that is always the truth, but regardless, it will be a conversation point if the Bulldogs do come out on top.

Is Miami a real threat?

It seems it has become a bit of an outlier opinion, but I do not think that Miami has a chance to jump Notre Dame in the end. If BYU does lose to Texas Tech, there is a chance that the Irish and Hurricanes could sit next to one another, in which the head-to-head win for Miami would finally be the decider between the two. It will be interesting to see if it does play into the final decision, but why would it get an extra bump at this point?

The committee has made its opinions on both Notre Dame and Miami very well known at this point. The head-to-head conversation should have already been baked into the conversation. What new data have we received for Miami to jump Notre Dame? They have played a lot of common opponents and had largely the same results. Notre Dame has better metrics than the Hurricanes all across the board except for the head-to-head matchup.

Should that matter in the conversation? Absolutely, but only if the resumes were equal, and they aren’t. So our default is to judge strictly on a head-to-head that happened over three months ago? A game that was in Hard Rock Stadium against a quarterback making his first career start? That feels like a pretty lazy argument that avoids a lot more context.

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Ryan Roberts