ESPN's College Football Playoff panel hotly debates Miami vs. Notre Dame, value of head-to-head result

The latest College Football Playoff rankings have been released, and all eyes are on Miami once again. The Hurricanes checked in at No. 12 on Tuesday night, high enough to be on the cusp of a playoff bid but in a definite danger spot.

The real danger for Miami is that it likely needs an at-large bid to make it into the field, as a trip to the ACC Championship Game, while still possible, is not likely. And being ranked at No. 12 may not be enough.

ESPN’s Heather Dinich pointed that out and once again highlighted the difference in the rankings between Miami and Notre Dame. Notre Dame, which lost to Miami in the season opener, checked in at No. 9.

Dinich made the case that Miami is in trouble, for a variety of reasons related to metrics. Notre Dame simply isn’t being viewed in the same pool as Miami right now, which is keeping the head-to-head result from bolstering Miami’s chances. Others on the ESPN set on Tuesday night disagreed with Dinich — and perhaps the College Football Playoff selection committee — about the state of Miami vs. Notre Dame.

“Listen, what Heather’s saying, that when you start looking at all these different metrics about this and that, I don’t got to look at that,” analyst Booger McFarland said. “I just go back and turn the tape on when I saw these two teams play. That’s the metric that I need. If two teams, these two teams finish 10-2 and we’re sitting up there comparing, we’re splitting hairs… I can just go back and watch the tape.”

That prompted some spirited discussion on the set, with chiefly Joey Galloway disagreeing with McFarland’s take. The former star wideout pointed out things evolve over the course of the season.

“If the season ended in the first two weeks, Miami’s a better football team,” Galloway said. “It’s a different team (now).”

Analyst Dusty Dvoracek then chimed in. He had a pretty neutral take.

“Both sides have a debate to be made,” he said. Galloway then openly questioned that.

“In Week 1 they were a better team and that’s the only time,” he said of Miami. That prompted even host Rece Davis to get involved.

“I would say the reason that you’re even having this debate is because they won,” Davis explained. McFarland would get the last word in the segment.

“This is a resume, guys,” he said. “It’s not a beauty pageant.”

So will Miami’s resume — and the head-to-head win over Notre Dame — end up mattering? That might depend entirely on what the teams in between the two programs do.

Could Alabama or BYU slip up and allow Miami to move closer to Notre Dame in the rankings, where its head-to-head win might come into play? That might be the lone scenario where Miami makes it into the playoffs at this point. Whether it happens is anyone’s guess.