If Notre Dame is in this same position next year, they won’t have to worry about another College Football Playoff snub.
Starting next season, if the Irish are ranked in the top 12 by the committee, they’ll be guaranteed a spot in the CFP bracket, per a memorandum of understanding signed by CFP officials, Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports.
Miami got the final at-large berth on Sunday by being ranked No. 10, one spot ahead of Notre Dame; next season, in that scenario, Miami would be bumped for Notre Dame.
Furthermore, Notre Dame would be guaranteed a playoff berth by being ranked No. 13 or higher if the bracket is expanded to 14 teams, per the MOU.
The college football world was stunned by Notre Dame’s exclusion from this season’s playoff as it got penalized while being idle this past weekend.
Alabama remained at No. 9 despite being blown out by Georgia in Saturday’s SEC championship game and generally looking unimpressive over the last month.
They were not punished for playing an extra game, unlike BYU, which fell to No. 12 after getting crushed by Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game.
That put Miami and Notre Dame next to each other, and that then put their opening-week matchup in play, according to CFP chair Hunter Yurachek; Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24.
The opening games of the 2025 College Football Playoff:
Round 1
- No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma on Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. ET
- No. 10 Miami at No. 7 Texas A&M on Dec. 20 at 12 p.m. ET
- No. 11 Tulane at No 6 Ole Miss on Dec. 20 at 3:30 p.m. ET
- No. 12 James Madison at No. 5 Oregon on Dec. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Quarterfinals
- No. 10 Miami/No. 7 Texas A&M vs No. 2 Ohio State at Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. ET
- No. 12 James Madison/No. 5 Oregon vs No. 4 Texas Tech on Jan. 1 at 12 p.m. ET
- No. 9 Alabama/No. 8 Oklahoma vs No. 1 Indiana on Jan. 1 at 4 p.m. ET
- No. 11 Tulane/No. 6 Ole Miss vs No. 3 Georgia on Jan. 1 at 8 p.m. ET
But Notre Dame had been ranked ahead of Miami for weeks, causing confusion.
“There is no explanation that could possibly be given to explain the outcome,” Bevacqua told Yahoo Sports. “As I said to [head coach] Marcus [Freeman], one thing is for sure: Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. 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?
“We feel like the playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”
Notre Dame announced it will not accept an invitation to a bowl game after the snub.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
