playHow the CFP committee landed on putting Miami ahead of Notre Dame (3:28)College Football Playoff selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek discusses the decision to put Miami in the College Football Playoff over Notre Dame. (3:28)David HaleDec 7, 2025, 02:52 PM ETCloseCollege football reporter. Joined ESPN in 2012. Graduate of the University of Delaware. Follow on XEmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsTwelve years into the College Football Playoff, the committee may have been tasked with its toughest decision yet. On one hand, there's Alabama, the bluest of blue bloods, a team that played the sixth-toughest schedule in the country, with seven wins over FPI top-40 opponents, and whose final loss -- the one that put the Tide squarely on the bubble -- came in the SEC championship game, while others like Miami and Notre Dame sat at home. On the other hand, there's Notre Dame, the most storied program in the sport's history with a legion of fans from coast to coast. The Irish are playing exceptional football, winning 10 straight all by double digits, and their lone losses, way back in August and early September, came to two other top-tier teams by a combined four points. Then on the metaphorical third hand is Miami, a team that began the season with fireworks, sagged in the middle, then responded to its No.
