Hunter Yurachek provides insight Notre Dame vs. Miami College Football Playoff ranking despite head to head matchup

In the fallout from the College Football Playoff rankings being released Tuesday, there was plenty of discussion about Notre Dame and Miami. Both teams made the playoff, with the Fighting Irish coming in at No. 9 and the Hurricanes at No. 13 but receiving an auto bid as the highest ranked ACC school.

That led to ESPN analyst Rece Davis pressing CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek for answers on how those teams landed where they did. Even though Miami defeated Notre Dame earlier this season and both have two losses, Yurachek pointed to the quality of those losses as being the main difference.

“When you look at Notre Dame and Miami, we really compare the losses of those two teams,” he said. “Miami has lost to two unranked teams and Notre Dame has lost to two teams that are ranked in our top 13. So we really haven’t compared those two teams. They haven’t been in similary comparitive pools to date. But Miami is creeping up into that range where they will be compared to Notre Dame if something happens above them.”

Seeing Miami ranked this highly is a bit puzzling given their spot in the ACC standings currently. The Hurricanes rank fifth behind four other teams with one conference loss, meaning their odds of even competing for a conference crown are extremely thin.

Although Miami has technically not been mathmatically eliminated just yet, it would need the end of the regular season to go perfectly to make the ACC Championship. Without winning the league, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Hurricanes would get in the playoff.

Yet, based on their current ranking, we can’t count them out. Yurachek went on to say that while the committee hasn’t compared Miami and Notre Dame yet, the Hurricanes could eventually put themselves into that conversation. In that case, the head-to-head victory would hold a lot of weight.

“You look at what happened this week when we compared Alabama and Oklahoma in a similar spot where 8, 9 and 10, we were comparing those teams,” Yurachek said. “Oklahoma obviously got the nod based on their two-point win at (Alabama). So if Miami and Notre Dame are in a comparable tier, comparable range, the head-to-head will be a significant data point that we use.”

Finally, the committee chair addressed the teams in between Notre Dame and Miami from 10-12. Perhaps the Hurricanes would be able to move up even further if any of them were to lose another game, potentially forcing the committee to make a decision between the Hurricanes and Fighting Irish.

“I think there’s some other factors, where you have Utah, BYU and Alabama in between Notre Dame and Miami,” he said. “As we set up the pools to do our selection process, Miami and Notre Dame have not been grouped in the same pools to have that direct head-to-head comparison where you would really use that metric to separate one team from the next. I think it’s the separation that you have between those two teams, similar to a separation you have right now between a Vanderbilt and Texas, where you have a head-to-head metric, as well.”