On Sunday afternoon, the final college football rankings were revealed, and to the surprise of many, the Notre Dame football team was not among the 12 squads to make the playoff. It was widely assumed to be a two-team race between Notre Dame and Miami for one spot in the final rankings, but up to this point, the Irish had been ahead of the Hurricanes in the rankings, causing some to wonder why they were jumped this week despite neither team having played over the weekend.
Needless to say, Irish fans on X, formerly Twitter, were not thrilled with the result.
“It’s not the fact that Miami is in. It’s the fact that the committee dangled the playoffs in front of us for so long and then switched us at the last minute after neither of us played. If they were going to put Miami in, they should’ve been ahead the whole time,” wrote one fan.
“It is ridiculous that JMU and Tulane are in the College Football Playoffs … and Notre Dame and Texas and Vanderbilt are not. This shouldn't be about ‘everybody gets a chance.' This should be about THE BEST 12 TEAMS IN AMERICA. Come on,” added another.
Others pointed out that Alabama football still made the playoff despite laying an egg in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday.
“The last few weeks, Notre Dame dominated their games and dropped two spots in the rankings. Alabama went 2-2 with a blowout loss last night and rose in the rankings,” wrote one fan.
Overall, there was nothing that the committee could have done to make everyone happy with their decision, and there was going to be outrage regardless of which direction they chose to go.
Still, the fact that Notre Dame and Miami were flipped on the last day despite neither having played over the weekend certainly raised eyebrows.
