Mario Cristobal gives emphatic argument for Miami to make College Football Playoff over Notre Dame

As the final College Football Playoff rankings approach, debate rages over whether Miami‘s head-to-head victory over Notre Dame should be considered in the committee’s rankings. The ‘Canes beat the Irish 27-24 on Aug. 31.

Currently, the CFP committee has Notre Dame ranked 10th, and Miami at 12th overall. Both are 10-2 after the regular season and despite the outcome of their Week 1 matchup, the committee favors the Irish. Miami is on the bubble, but head coach Mario Cristobal made the case for his ‘Canes to make the final field of 12.

“Absolutely (we have a chance to make the playoffs),” Cristobal said during national signing day. “We are very realistic. In the history of the CFP there has never been a situation where two Power 4, Power 5 teams with the same record that had head to head, never has the loser advanced an the winner been kept behind.”

Irish head coach Marcus Freeman made his team’s case after Notre Dame’s Week 14 win over Stanford. He asked, “Who are the best teams now?” Not during Week 1, but now, he said.

Cristobal went down the laundry list of statistics from that matchup, hoping to prove to the committee that Miami should be a College Football Playoff team. The head-to-head win over Notre Dame is exhibit A.

“The most important thing in all of sports – head to head determines a winner or loser,” Cristobal continued. “Miami did a great job of game control in settling that on the field. I can rattle off so many statistics. When you look at what we did that game holding a Heisman candidate to 30 yards, having such a dominant performance up front.

“Common opponents where we were more convincing in three of the four common opponents. … We are playing our best football, have been the last month, margin of victory 28 points.”

With the Irish ahead of the ‘Canes in the rankings, it appeared the committee may favor the full body of work. Diving deeper, Notre Dame made headlines for losing its first two games of the season against both Miami and Texas A&M, two teams in the CFP conversation.

Notably, the Irish went on to win its last 10 games of the season. That included wins over ranked USC and Pitt teams.

For Miami, the ‘Canes began the season 5-0 before finishing the back-half of their schedule 5-2. Those pair of losses could be damning for Miami, as they lost to an unranked Louisville team at home and in overtime vs. SMU on the road over a three-week span. They’ve also won four-straight games, all of which have been won by multiple scores.