Kirk Herbstreit calls out 'misleading' decision CFP committee made with Miami, Notre Dame

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit called out the College Football Playoff committee for their decision regarding Miami and Notre Dame. Herbstreit acknowledged Miami’s head to head was the right metric when it came down to the Hurricanes and Irish for the final spot in the rankings.

However, it was misleading coming in since Notre Dame was ranked above Miami most of the year despite a head to head loss. Not only that, the committee opted to put a 10-3 Alabama team at No 9 Sunday, over Miami, giving them a safe spot.

“So it’s not like the AP poll, where every single week we follow and react to what happened. This is, to me, a mistake and misleading, because of having these Tuesday night shows and having Miami so far away from Notre Dame,” Herbstreit said on the CFP reveal show. “It’s easy to say, ‘well they should have had Miami ahead of Notre Dame all along.’ Well, Miami had some two tough losses and games they controlled against SMU and Louisville, and gave them both away. There had to be some kind of reaction from the committee and a punishment from the committee. 

“But Miami did what they needed to do. They kept climbing the ladder, getting close enough they did their job on the field, and eventually, even though they didn’t play, Notre Dame didn’t play, the committee felt that with BYU’s second loss to Texas Tech, in convincing fashion, they should go beneath Miami. And again, that’s where the head to head mattered, and that’s why they ended up flipping Miami and Notre Dame.”

Herbstreit believed the College Football Playoff committee had a debate between an SEC runner-up in Alabama and a 10-2 Miami team and they said they were playoff teams. However, Alabama was ranked higher.

Because of that, Miami and Notre Dame were pitted against one another for the final spot. With a Hurricanes win over the Irish in August, the CFP had an easier decision to make.

“I think, again, it became a debate between Miami and Alabama,” Herbstreit said. “I think they got the nod. Miami-Notre Dame. I think the head to head that Joey’s talking about, one of the things I think is interesting based on what we’ve always been trained is, and I know the Tuesday night show creates some drama, and it creates a lot of heartache and headache for a lot of people to understand, but they really don’t feel that their rankings are true until they get all of the data in. And with BYU losing a second time convincingly, even though Miami didn’t play, Notre Dame didn’t play, that put BYU behind Miami. 

“And now head to head matters, because they’re right next to each other. And even though they weren’t on the field last week, it’s hard to justify ‘how can a team go by when neither team played?’ They would tell you in that room that we needed all the games played, all the games finished, and now we can see that Miami and Notre Dame were next to each other, and last week has nothing to do, in their minds, with this week and their final rankings.”