Heather Dinich reveals why latest rankings make Notre Dame a 'lock' for College Football Playoff

The third edition of this year’s College Football Playoff selection committee rankings came out on Tuesday night. Within those rankings was plenty to take notice of, particularly where Notre Dame finds itself ranked.

Notre Dame came in ranked No. 9 in the country. That’s important because of who the Irish are ranked ahead, including Alabama, coming in at No. 10, and Miami at No. 13 in the country. That has them positioned to be a lock to make the CFP. It’s a spot that ESPN reporter Heather Dinich explained on Wednesday during an appearance on Get Up.

“The fact that Notre Dame is ranked ahead of Alabama leads me to believe that if they run the table, they are the closest thing to a lock,” Heather Dinich said. “That’s because the committee rewarded the Irish because they have better losses than Alabama. They continue to point out that season-opening loss to Florida State, but Alabama has four wins against CFP Top-22 teams, including the committee’s No. 4 team in Georgia.”

Notre Dame lost its opening two games to No. 13 Miami and No. 3 Texas A&M by a total of four points. Since then, the Irish are unbeaten and have been impressive in regards to the eye test. With just Syracuse and Stanford remaining on the schedule, Notre Dame would have to suffer a major upset not to finish 10-2. Meanwhile, Alabama dropped what now looks like a bad loss to Florida State and a recent game to No. 8 Oklahoma.

The trouble for many is that Alabama has a tougher strength of schedule than Notre Dame. The Crimson Tide are No. 4 in SOS. As for Notre Dame, the Irish sit at No. 29 in that metric. That, combined with the head-to-head loss to Miami, has some fans frustrated. However, the CFP selection committee clearly likes what it sees from the Irish.

“So, when you look at that, they talked about Notre Dame having two close losses to Miami and Texas A&M by a total of four points. Speaking of Miami, Notre Dame is past them too,” Dinich said. “Because the selection committee is still not honoring that season-opening, head-to-head win.”

Hunter Yurachek reveals why Notre Dame is ahead of Alabama in third College Football Playoff rankings

New selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek recently broke down the CFP rankings. In particular, he would dive into why Notre Dame ended up ranked ahead of Alabama.

“We probably spent more time in our committee room comparing two or three teams at that band with Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Alabama. … Alabama had that string where they had four really strong wins at Georgia, against Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee. Then, you look at Notre Dame, they’ve got a win against Southern Cal and a dominating win against a Pitt team that was ranked in our Top 25. Really, when you break these teams down and the comparison [between] Notre Dame and Alabama, Notre Dame has two losses to teams that are within the Top 13 – a three-point loss against Miami to start the season and then a one-point loss against Texas A&M,” Yurachek said.

“Alabama, obviously, has the two-point loss at home last week to Oklahoma, but they had that loss at the beginning of the season, 31-17, at Florida State – a team that’s now 5-5. Florida State was up in that game 24-7 and they held to Alabama to less than 100 yards rushing in that game. That, really, was a sign of some of the struggles Alabama was going to have rushing the ball. You go back and look at Alabama’s game against South Carolina where they score two touchdowns late to win that game and then, the next game against LSU, where they won both of those but didn’t rush the ball for 100 yards. And again, against Oklahoma, was not able to run the ball on the ground.”

In other words, it’s a blend of the quality of those losses on the season. However, that’s not the only issue. It’s also how the two teams have been winning in recent weeks.

“So you think you look at the games that Alabama has struggled in, starting the season against Florida State where they struggled to [run] the ball. They’re two really good 8-2 teams,” Yurachek said. “But you look at the losses of Notre Dame vs. the losses of Alabama, and that was really one of the defining metrics that we used.”