Notre Dame wasn’t the villain that Miami fans should have been obsessing over with controversial CFP ranking on the horizon
Good luck, Miami fans.
For weeks now, Notre Dame and Miami football fans have been coming at each other viciously on social media. Head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish have been waiting patiently, hoping that the BYU Cougars and Alabama Crimson Tide both suffered losses this weekend (which they did by a margin of 62-14). The conference championship slate couldn’t have gone better for them as a whole.
The argument from Hurricane fans is that after Alabama jumped Notre Dame this past week, this was setting up to be a Miami vs. Notre Dame debate for the final playoff spot. Over the last week, the college football world was full of hypotheticals. The Crimson Tide got pushed in front of the Irish to protect them from dropping out of the rankings if they lost to Georgia. As long as BYU lost to Texas Tech, Miami would have a chance to be right next to Notre Dame, which would let their head-to-head result finally give them the edge in the final playoff ranking.
That was the talking point from the folks in South Beach. You even had prominent college football analysts like Joel Klatt commenting that Notre Dame had no chance to make the playoffs. Either BYU wins and beats them out, or the Hurricanes would overtake them. The Irish were cooked, allegedly.
Miami fans delusional reality
While Miami fans were jawing about how everything played into their favor, I questioned the full scope of that Alabama bump last Tuesday night. While it was absolutely designed to protect the Crimson Tide to a degree, it also could have directly protected Notre Dame as well. With Alabama losing 28-7 in blowout fashion to the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, there is a strong reason to believe that the Crimson Tide could fall back to their previous No. 10 ranking, if not slide all the way out of the playoff field. If that is how it goes, Notre Dame would move up to No. 9 once again and be solidified in their standing.
We don’t have much of a sample size with the four-team playoff just in its second year, but every conference championship game loser last season fell at least one spot in the final playoff ranking. It is hard to imagine a 21-point defeat for Alabama won’t demand the same result. If not, there could be a college football mutiny from all over the country.
Perhaps Miami fans should have prepared for the real conversation that is about to happen: Whether Miami or Alabama should occupy the final at-large spot. Both programs have a proud rivalry dating back to the days of Catholic vs. Convicts. Even though the two teams don’t play often, they are still programmed to dislike one another. Hurricane fans allowed that hatred to blind them from the fact that there were a couple of different ways that this weekend could go, not a simple hypothetical.
Now it is time to argue about the Miami vs. Alabama resumes. That is the debate that is actually going to matter.
Notre Dame fans entered the weekend with anxiety and uncertainty in their playoff future. That now shifts to Miami, which will either manage to jump Alabama for that final spot or get ready to accept an invitation for the legendary Pop Tarts Bowl. Good luck, Hurricane fans.
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