Notre Dame snubbed: It wasn’t Miami, but rather Alabama, that took their spot

Notre Dame was bypassed for a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff field on Sunday, either by Miami or Alabama – I’m thinking Alabama more than Miami; ‘Bama isn’t playing great right now, while Miami and Notre Dame are.

If the goal is to rank the programs based on their ability to win a championship, you know, yeah.

The response to the snub from Notre Dame Football: we’re taking our ball, and going home.

“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season,” the team said in a statement released Sunday, after the CFP reveal.

Can’t blame ‘em.

Bowls have no value to the programs, haven’t for years; they’re just there to give ESPN something to put on TV around Christmas and New Year’s.

If you’re not playing for something tangible like a championship, it’s hard to justify even playing the game of football, where you’re at risk of getting brain damage or suffering debilitating, life-altering injury on any given snap.

I feel bad here for the Notre Dame kids, really do, because the selection committee had the Irish safely in its obviously worthless made-for-TV weekly rankings from the get-go early last month.

Not that they should have been; the committee had the Irish ranked ahead of a Miami team that had beaten Notre Dame head-to-head in Week 1, and otherwise had the same record and similar resume.

The Miami-or-Notre Dame? storyline was a key part of the TV drama the past several weeks, and that the narrative coming out of Selection Sunday revolves around that dichotomy feels artificial, when you consider the case of Alabama, which was blown out in Saturday’s SEC title game by #3 Georgia, 28-7.

The Crimson Tide (10-3) hasn’t been playing well since late October, needing to rally from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat South Carolina, which finished 4-8 this season, on Oct. 25, then going 2-2 in November and December – one of the wins a blowout of Eastern Illinois, an FCS program that went 3-9 in 2025, the other a tight win in their regular-season finale over an Auburn team that finished 5-7.

Hunter Yurachek, the AD at Arkansas, an SEC school, and the chair of the selection committee, noted that Alabama’s schedule strength “was the highest of any team in the Top 11, and also their win at Georgia, 24-21, earlier this season, arguably the best win for any team, and they also had a win against Vanderbilt and then a previous win at Missouri and Tennessee, both of whom had been ranked in our Top 25 at various points this year.”

OK, so, ‘Bama also lost by two touchdowns to a Florida State team that finished 5-7, arguably the worst loss of anybody in the Top 11.

At their best, they can beat Georgia; at their worst, they can get blown out by Georgia, can get beaten down by a sub-.500 team, and barely beat two others.

Notre Dame’s losses were to CFP teams – Miami, by a field goal, in Week 1, Texas A&M, by one point, in Week 2.

Neither necessarily had a great win – well, except for Miami, which beat Notre Dame – but there aren’t bad losses, or uncomfortably close results against 5-7 or 4-8 teams.

Miami’s two losses were to two ACC schools that finished with 8-4 records – Louisville and SMU.

The ‘Canes beat FSU, 28-22, in October, in a game that was 28-3 entering the fourth quarter, and the ‘Noles made look closer in garbage time.

Outside of that one, they beat the bejeezus out of everybody else.

Notre Dame only played with its food once, in a 34-24 win over Southern Cal, finally taking the lead in that one late in the third, and putting the game away midway through the fourth.

The USC that Notre Dame needed to gut out a win over finished 9-3, not 4-8 like Alabama’s USC.

Only one quibble from me for Pete Bevacqua, the AD at Notre Dame, who told ESPN that any rankings ahead of the final ones are a “farce and total waste of time.”

The quibble: this whole CFP process is a farce and total waste of time.