Miami crushed Virginia Tech to keep heat on College Football Playoff committee.
Head-to-head of Miami beating Notre Dame not enough for this committee.
If playoff included 12 best teams, Notre Dame and Miami would both make it. But, it doesn’t
Hunter Yurachek will need something bigger than a handkerchief to mop all the sweat off his forehead after his next College Football Playoff rankings interview on ESPN.
Get that man a towel!
Miami kept the heat applied on the CFP selection committee by comfortably beating Virginia Tech, 34-17, on the road Saturday.
No need for Carson Beck to throw anyone under the bus after this one. Beck completed his first 11 passes, and he kept firing strikes to Malachi Toney and Co. until he finished with 320 passing yards. Miami’s defense tormented Virginia Tech’s offensive line.
I won’t attempt to twist this win into Miami’s magnum opus. The committee will be unmoved by a three-score workmanlike win against a bad team. This was nothing more than the result you’d expect from a playoff contender. Virginia Tech played like a spirited but flawed bunch, although the Hokies are no worse than a few of the teams Notre Dame has beaten.
Yurachek, the CFP selection committee’s front man, will be forced to explain once again why the committee keeps ranking Notre Dame several spots ahead of Miami, despite the teams’ identical records and the Hurricanes’ head-to-head win in Week 1 against the Irish.
The Irish were No. 9 this week, and Miami clocked in at No. 13.
Yurachek declared Notre Dame has better losses than Miami, so therefore committee values the Irish more.
In other words, Miami being as good as it is and beating the Irish becomes a pivotal reason why Notre Dame is ranked higher than Miami.
That’s some gold medal mental gymnastics.
The more Miami wins, the better Notre Dame’s loss to Miami becomes. That leaves the Hurricanes rolling a boulder uphill. Ask Sisyphus how that works out.
A 17-point win against Virginia Tech won’t budge the boulder much.
Miami football, Notre Dame playoff debate continues
Notre Dame edges Miami on the eye test, the committee’s favorite subjective measuring stick. This committee also awards more weight to ‘good losses’ than it does to good wins.
Miami has Notre Dame beat in the best-win category. Also, although its losses aren’t as “good” as Notre Dame’s, dropping games to Louisville and SMU by a total of seven points don’t qualify as terrible losses. They’re two of the ACC’s better teams, although Louisville is fading fast.
Miami’s problems are twofold. The committee doesn’t value head-to-head results as much as it values losing to good teams. Also, this playoff format is not designed to generate the nation’s 12-best teams. If it did, the Hurricanes’ chances would significantly improve.
Instead, this playoff guarantees spots for five conference champions. Two of those automatic bids are likely to go to teams ranked outside the top 12. That means Miami probably needs to be tucked inside the top 10 of the final rankings to nab an at-large bid.
A Miami rejection wouldn’t be a travesty akin to the committee’s snub of 13-0 Florida State two years ago. The bigger the playoff field, the more blemishes on the so-called snubs.
Miami could have avoided this precarious position if it had just beaten Louisville at home. Instead, Beck fired four interceptions in that loss.
The Hurricanes also could’ve reframed the Notre Dame debate if they had beaten the Irish by as much as they should have. They dominated Notre Dame for three quarters. They led by two touchdowns entering the fourth quarter before decelerating and needing a late field goal to survive an opponent whose quarterback made his first career start.
Neither Miami nor Notre Dame has CFP credentials above rebuke
I understand the arguments for Notre Dame. Its defense looks better than it did in September. Playing a forgiving schedule the past two months helps the optics. CJ Carr has become a solid quarterback, and Notre Dame boasts the nation’s best backfield. The Irish could win a playoff game or two. So could Miami. They’re both in that messy group of two-loss teams that, on a good day, are pretty dangerous.
On an ugly day, Miami lost to Louisville, and Notre Dame lumbered past woeful Boston College.
Miami will have one more chance to build its case against Notre Dame next week. The Hurricanes will play Pittsburgh. Notre Dame smashed Pitt, 37-15, last week. Miami routing Pitt by more than three scores would make for a compelling closing argument.
Notre Dame and Miami both look like top-12 teams to my eye, but if the choice must come down to one of these two for the final playoff spot, I’d award the bid to the Hurricanes, with the head-to-head result providing a slight tip in the scales.
This committee seems unlikely to share that outlook, even as Yurachek stammers and sweats out the committee’s flimsy defense of its ranking.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.