Josh Pate: CFP selection committee 'fumbled' process 'horrifically'

The College Football Playoff field is set. That’s not without plenty of debate after Notre Dame would be left out in the last minute, moving down in the rankings behind Miami.

That decision may have been the right one. Certainly, Josh Pate thinks it was. However, as he explained on Monday morning during an appearance on Get Up, it’s the process that led to that decision that fans have a right to be frustrated with.

“They did put the right two in,” Josh Pate said. “It’s got to boggle the mind of people who are not college football fans to listen to this, because a lot of us are saying they got the right teams in. At least, according to how I feel. And then they’re also hearing us say, ‘Yeah, Notre Dame should be upset. Notre Dame fans should be irate.’ Well, I thought you said the committee got it right? The product was right, at least in my estimation. The process was fumbled horrifically.”

The logic behind Notre Dame getting bumped is related to their head-to-head loss to Miami. Once BYU lost, they fell and left the two directly next to one another, which the selection committee says allowed for that head-to-head to become a factor. However, Pate takes issue with that not being a factor until then, making it appear as though Notre Dame was safely in ahead of Miami since neither played.

“So, anybody, including the athletic director or anyone associated with Notre Dame, who are saying, ‘We got cheated.’ They’ve got every right to feel that way because simple logic tells you, anything you said. Anything Hunter Yurachek and that committee said about the head-to-head of Miami and Notre Dame yesterday would have easily as readily applied the week before that or the week before that or the week before that,” Pate said.

“So, to pretend that you didn’t posses the mental capacity as a committee to judge those teams head-to-head until the 11th hour, to suggest you didn’t have the mental capacity to see them for who they were until Brigham Young got picked up and removed, is like a dereliction of duty to what you’re supposed to be doing with these Playoff reveal shows and ranking shows, which is slowly and methodically explaining your process. Instead, you just muddied the water more.”

Regardless, the process is the process and Notre Dame is on the outside looking in. The Irish will also decline their bowl invitation, effectively ending the 2025 season.

Notre Dame AD calls College Football Playoff rankings an ‘absolute joke’ after Irish CFP snub

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua was furious after their CFP snub. He’d even go as far as to call the CFP rankings a joke in the immediate aftermath.

“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes. Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach,” Bevacqua said.

“There is no explanation that could possibly be given to explain the outcome. As I said to Marcus [Freeman], one thing is for sure: Any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. Why put these young student-athletes through these false emotions just to pull the rug out from underneath them having not played a game in two weeks and then a group of people in a room shatter their dreams without explanation? We feel like the Playoff was stolen from our student-athletes.”