Matt Leinart stumps for Notre Dame, Miami in College Football Playoff, says Alabama out

Conference championship weekend has already led to a lot of interesting discussion about the final College Football Playoff rankings. In particular, Alabama, Notre Dame and Miami are three teams that have generated a lot of different opinions.

All three teams are currently right on the bubble for making it into the 12-team field. As the rankings currently stand, Alabama and Notre Dame would be win while Miami would be out. However, Matt Leinart believes the results from Saturday’s SEC Championship may change that.

The Crimson Tide lost 28-7 against Georgia and currently sit at No. 9 in the CFP rankings. However, Leinart said before the Big Ten Championship on FOX that he believes the Hurricanes should get in over Alabama.

“The two best-case scenarios that could have happened for Notre Dame and Miami today, happened,” Leinart said. “Both (Alabama and BYU) getting dominated. … I don’t think that Alabama deserves it. You talk about two teams right now playing their best football, Notre Dame and Miami should be in over the Tide.”

It’s certainly a difficult discussion that will cause plenty of debate the rest of Saturday evening and leading into Sunday afternoon. Many will make the argument that Alabama should not be punished for playing in its conference title game and losing while both Notre Dame and Miami had idle weeks.

The Crimson Tide also rank higher in both strength of schedule and strength of record compared to the Fighting Irish and Hurricanes according to ESPN. It’s hard to find an argument other than Alabama finishing with more losses, but again, that was only because it played in the SEC Championship.

Miami also likely stands a good chance to jump BYU, which lost 34-7 in the Big 12 Championship against Texas Tech on Saturday. Leinart seems to believe the blowout nature of both games will move the Hurricanes up.

Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see when the rankings are released at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday. Leinart isn’t the only one who thinks Albama is out, as former Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram also isn’t confident.

“Conference championships matter,” Ingram said. “But you’ve got to play well in the conference championship. BYU lost by 27, you’re out. Bama, you played Georgia in the SEC Championship and lose by 21? I’ve got too much Bama in me, but you’re out. Now, Miami and Notre Dame should both get in, in my opinion. I think that’s the decision that the committee’s going to have to make because we have two bad losses in a championship game.”