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Notre Dame finished the regular season with a 10-2 record and ranked No. 10 in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings entering conference championship weekend.
The Fighting Irish did not play this weekend as the football program is not part of any conference. Notre Dame was in the field over BYU and Miami with college football fans clamoring for the Hurricanes to get on the field because of their win over the Fighting Irish in the regular season.
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Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price (24) is tackled by Stanford safety Darrius Davis (29) during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Stanford, California. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)
On Sunday, the College Football Playoff Committee opted to keep the Fighting Irish off the field. Miami reached the College Football Playoff, as did Alabama despite three losses. The Tulane Green Wave and James Madison Dukes also made the final field as the best teams to win their conference championships. The Duke Blue Devils won the ACC but were kept out of contention with five losses on their resume.
The college football world weighed in on Notre Dame’s omission.
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Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love, center, celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown in the first half of an NCAA college football game against Stanford, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Stanford, California. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)
CFP Committee Chairman Hunter Yurachek said the committee decided to skip Miami over BYU after the Cougars lost in the Big 12 Championship to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. It was BYU’s second loss to Texas Tech during the season.
After that, Yurachek said the committee did a side-by-side comparison between Notre Dame and Miami and decided to keep the Fighting Irish out of the bracket.
“You look at the two teams on paper and they were almost equal in their strength of schedule, their common opponents, the results against their common opponents, but the one metric we had to fall back on was head-to-head,” Yurachek said on ESPN. “I encouraged the committee members to go back and watch that game because it was so long ago and we had an interesting debate from our coaches about what that game looked like.
“With that in mind, we gave Miami the nod over Notre Dame for the 10th spot.”
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr (13) runs with the ball during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Stanford, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Stanford, California. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)
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Yurachek said the committee believed Miami should have been ranked ahead of BYU after the Cougars’ performance in the Big 12 title game, and then the committee compared the Hurricanes to the Fighting Irish.
