Joel Klatt criticizes College Football Playoff committee in debate of Notre Dame vs. Miami

The biggest debate to this point of the selection committee’s rankings for the College Football Playoff has been that of Notre Dame against Miami, with the Fighting Irish remaining ahead of the Hurricanes despite a three-point win in the season opener for ‘The U.’ Now, with just over a week until the final rankings are made official, Klatt thinks it could cause more problems than one, if it remains that way, for the CFP.

Klatt discussed the issue of No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 12 Miami during his reaction show on Wednesday. Klatt claimed since the two are now in a similar area in the ranking as far as comparison goes, he isn’t entirely sure how Notre Dame is still ahead with a direct loss to Miami. That’s the case even if, at this moment, Klatt or those on the CFP Selection Committee think the Irish would win a hypothetical rematch tomorrow against the Hurricanes.

“Three spots away is, by the committee’s own admission, a team in Miami, who’s being now included in the cohort that is being evaluated against one another – and, yet still, head-to-head is not carrying the day. See, guys, like, that could be problematic,” Klatt said. “Now, you can tell me, this weekend, you would pick Notre Dame to win the game. That’s fine. But you do still have to honor the games that have been played. You know, to some extent, you’ve got to look up and you’ve got to honor what the players do on the field. You’ve got to do that.

“Miami now is sitting there, and I get it. Their resumé isn’t quite what Notre Dame’s is, and their losses are not great – SMU and Louisville. I totally understand that, and there was a section of this year where they weren’t playing very well, but then now they are playing well. This is a problem. This is a problem now, because games that get played need to be honored. I’ve been consistent about that. And I can still, I would still be the first one to say, if you had to make a pick, Notre Dame-Miami this week, I would pick Notre Dame. It’s not a great spot to be in if you’re the committee, but they are putting themselves in a corner where not honoring head-to-head is a problem. That’s a problem, and it’s a problem for the future of college football.”

Klatt also thinks, beyond that, this is something that could further devalue big-time games in the non-conference. It’d be an example of giving no reward to a team that won a matchup like that, which they went out and scheduled rather than face a lesser opponent.

“And, by the way, they’re also walking into this trap of devaluing non-conference matchups,” Klatt added. “You see, like, this is also a problem.”

What Klatt thinks this is coming down to, though, is decisions more so based on eye-test than resumé, with him seeing that it’s directly affecting the ranking for the Fighting Irish. No. 9 Notre Dame (9-2) has played like a playoff-caliber team this season, even with the two losses, but Klatt doesn’t think they should necessarily be winning an argument on the basis resumé over No. 10 Alabama (9-2), who is 3-1 in games against teams currently in the CFP Top 25 as opposed to 2-2 for the Irish, or No. 12 Miami, who, regardless of their other losses, has a win over Notre Dame back during Labor Day weekend.

“The next thing that jumped out to me, and this was kind of, like – I’ve known it and talked about it before on the program. This committee very clearly values the eye test, and it is abundantly clear with this ranking of Notre Dame and their valuing of Notre Dame,” Klatt said. “Let me start by saying, like, I don’t disagree with the ranking, and I’m not saying that the committee is wrong. But, this committee is using the eye test over the resumé. Now, they’re pretty consistent with it. They’ve done it throughout these rankings…You look up, and you can clearly see that the committee is valuing what they see on film, they’re valuing what the coaches in the room are saying because they value eye test over resumé.

You can agree or disagree with any of this as of now, with these rankings still being just previews for the College Football Playoff. But, once we get into next week’s rating, and the one that officially sets the field on December 7th, it’ll be very noteworthy to see what the committee ends up doing with this instance with Notre Dame and Miami.