The College Football Playoff committee really likes the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. A whole lot, it seems. And they’re willing to move the goalposts all over the place to back up that argument.

The Irish were #9 in this week’s rankings after their 37-15 win over the Pitt Panthers, one spot ahead of the Alabama Crimson Tide and four spots out of reach of the Miami Hurricanes who have the same record and hold a head-to-head win over the Irish. Despite a record of 1-2 against ranked teams with of those losses to Miami, the Irish continue to receive the benefit of the doubt.

And why? Well, when it comes to Notre Dame and Miami, CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek says the losses matter more than the wins at this point.

CFP chairman Hunter Yurachek curiously pointed to the Irish’s losses as the reason they’re five spots ahead of Miami despite one of them being to the Hurricanes

“I think when you look at Notre Dame and Miami, we really compare the losses of those two teams. Miami has lost to two unranked teams. Notre Dame has lost to two teams that are ranked in our top 13. And so, we really haven’t compared those two teams. They haven’t been in similar comparative pools to date, but Miami is creeping up into that range where they will be compared to Notre Dame if something happens above them.”

Huh??? So, the reason for Notre Dame being that far ahead of Miami was the losses by the two teams? Miami lost to two 7-3 Power Four teams – one of whom was ranked last week – on the last play. Notre Dame lost… TO MIAMI. The lack of logic here is absolutely mind blowing. That’s what we’re doing now? Comparing losses rather than who beat who on the field, particularly when the two schools have similar resumes and have played?

The committee is directly saying that Notre Dame’s top 15 loss to Miami is more important than Miami’s top 15 win over the Irish! What. Are. We. Doing. Here??? This is a situation where common sense and merit have been lost in the forest of supposed procedure and apparent bias.

But Yurachek wasn’t done with the ridiculous explanations surrounding Notre Dame, this time regarding their placement of Alabama behind the Irish.

Yurachek went back to the well of “good losses” argument to support Notre Dame over Alabama

“Alabama had that string where they had four really strong wins at Georgia, against Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee,” Yurachek said during a media call. “Then you look at Notre Dame, they’ve got a win against Southern Cal and a dominating win last week against a Pitt team that was ranked in our top 25.

“Really where you break these teams down in the comparison, Notre Dame and Alabama, Notre Dame has losses to two teams that are within the top 13, a three-point loss against Miami to start the season and then a one-point loss versus Texas A&M.

“Alabama actually has a two-point loss at home last week against Oklahoma, but they had that loss at the beginning of the season, 31-17 at Florida State, a team that’s now 5-5. Florida State was up in that game 24-7. They held Alabama to less than 100 yards rushing in that game. That really was a sign of some of the struggles Alabama was going to have rushing the ball. You go back and look at Alabama’s game against South Carolina where they scored two touchdowns late to win that game, and then the next game against LSU where they won both of those but didn’t rush the ball for 100 yards. Then again against Oklahoma was not able to move the ball on the ground.

“So, you look at the games that Alabama has struggled in, starting the season against Florida State, where they struggled with the ball. That’s two really good 8-2 teams, but I think you look at the losses of Notre Dame versus the losses of Alabama, and that was really one of the defining metrics that we used.”

There’s no doubt the FSU loss is an albatross on Bama’s schedule, and their odd obsession with the Crimson Tide’s ground game appears to be a sticking point with them.

But they again cited Notre Dame’s supposed good losses as a reason to rank them over an Alabama team that has the best win of the entire season – a road win at Georgia – as well as wins over Tennessee, Missouri, and Vanderbilt, all ranked this week. Notre Dame’s only good win this season is USC.

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So, twice, they’ve made the message clear. It doesn’t matter if you win against the Irish or beat many more teams than them. This committee clearly and strongly believes that Notre Dame should be in the field when all is said and done, and they’re going to twist any argument their way that they can to make that stick.

Even if fairness and logic dictate otherwise.