Controversy awaits CFP rankings: Notre Dame, Miami, Texas plead cases

Controversy and disappointments will be a given when the next set of College Football Playoff rankings are released at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The CFP selection committee rankings likely will cast the die for teams not competing in their championship games.

The final set of rankings will come out at noon Dec. 7 and will provide the seedings for the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket.

Per the CFP protocol, “the committee’s task will be to select the best teams” through a process that considers:

• Strength of schedule;

• Head-to-head competition;

• Comparative outcomes of common opponents;

• Relevant factors, such as unavailability of key players and coaches.

The top four seeds will get byes, while teams seeded No. 5 through No. 12 will play first-round games at campus sites Dec. 19 and Dec. 20.

“I think this will be the toughest year the committee has,” ABC commentator and “College GameDay” analyst Kirk Herbstreit said Saturday night, “when you look at teams like Miami, Vanderbilt and Texas.”

Indeed, Carson Beck’s No. 12-ranked Hurricanes beat current No. 9 Notre Dame 27-24 in both teams’ season-opening game and have the same 10-2 record.

The Irish, however, have been ahead of Miami throughout the CFP rankings, and many expect they will stay there after closing the regular season with a 49-20 win over Stanford on Saturday night.

“You’re talking about a (Notre Dame) team that is playing as well as anyone right now, won 10 straight games, all of them by double-digit points,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said. “Who are the best teams now? Not Week 1, now.”

Notre Dame was No. 9 in this week’s playoff rankings and could hold the final at-large bid after league championship games unless jumped in the rankings.

Miami won’t have the opportunity to play Virginia in the ACC championship game for a potential automatic bid, as Duke won the tiebreaker among the five league teams that finished with a 6-2 league record. That leaves the Hurricanes completely dependent on landing an at-large berth to make the 12-team field.

Miami coach Mario Cristobal believes his team should jump high enough in the rankings to receive a CFP bid after the Hurricanes scored a 38-7 win at No. 22 Pitt on Saturday.

“We’ve got great players in all phases and we’re playing great football in all phases,” Cristobal said in his on-field TV interview. “The best part about football is you get to settle it on the field, where head-to-head is always the No. 1 criteria for anything regarding athletics and football.”

Texas, after scoring a statement win over No. 3-ranked and previously unbeaten Texas A&M, is hoping the selection committee will consider its wins over ranked opponents this season too.

The Longhorns’ 27-17 win over the Aggies prevented Texas A&M from appearing in what would have been their first SEC championship game since joining the league in 2012. With its 27-20 win over Auburn on Saturday, Alabama will face No. 4-ranked Georgia at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the SEC title game.

The No. 10-ranked Tide (10-2) are likely assured a spot, even should they suffer a third loss. The committee set a precedent last season of not dropping losing championship game teams in the rankings beneath teams that did not play that weekend.

Texas, meanwhile, hopes to jump from No. 16 into consideration for an at-large bid after its third win over a team ranked in the top 10 when they played them.

The Longhorns scored wins over current No. 14 Vanderbilt 34-31 and, perhaps most notably, current No. 8 Oklahoma 23-8 in the teams’ neutral-site rivalry.

Coach Steve Sarkisian pleaded his program’s case after defeating the Aggies on Friday night.

“That team was undefeated, the No. 3 team in the country. A lot of the pundits think they are the No. 1 team in the country, we just beat them by 10,” Sarkisian said in his on-field interview. “If you look at the body of work … and you look at the nonconference schedule we played and go to Ohio State in Week 1 and lose by seven, when we outgained them by nearly 200 yards, we have a really good football team.

“It would be a disservice to our sport if this team is not a playoff team when we went and scheduled that nonconference game, because if we’re a 10-2 team, there’s not a question.”

The CFP announced before the season the selection committee would use enhanced strength of schedule metrics when determining the weekly rankings.

The SEC, in moving to a nine-game league schedule next season, assured its coaches strength of schedule would be more heavily considered by the selection committee.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz is among the coaches who challenged the assertion, based on how the CFP rankings have played out to this point.

“We have teams that played against each other, they both have the same record and we don’t count that as a factor,” Drinkwitz said, pointing to Notre Dame being ranked ahead of Miami. “I mean, I don’t know what to tell people.”

There will be plenty of talk Tuesday night, to be sure, when the CFP selection committed deals out the rankings, with only championship game left with games to play.

Projected CFP field seeds, games

First-round byes

• 1 Ohio State (projected Big Ten title game winner)
• 2 Indiana
• 3. Georgia (projected SEC title game winner)
• 4. Texas Tech (projected Big 12 title game winner)

First-round matchups

On campus sites, Dec. 19-20

• No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 Tulane (highest-ranked Group of Six champion)
• No. 6 Texas A&M vs. No. 11 Virginia (projected ACC title game winner)
• No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Alabama
• No. 8 Oklahoma vs. No. 9 Notre Dame

Quarterfinals

• No. 4 Texas Tech vs. Winner of No. 5 Oregon-No. 12 Tulane
• No. 1 Ohio State vs. Winner of No. 9 Notre Dame-No. 8 Oklahoma
• No. 3 Georgia vs. Winner of No. 6 Texas A&M-No. 11 Virginia
• No. 2 Indiana vs. Winner of No. 7 Ole Miss-No. 10 Alabama

Semifinals

• Fiesta Bowl, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 8 teams TBD
• Peach Bowl, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 9 teams TBD

CFP Championship Game

• Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, Jan. 19

How the CFP Top 25 fared

1 Ohio State (12-0)

Won at No. 15 Michigan, 27-9

2. Indiana (12-0)

Won at Purdue, 56-3

3. Texas A&M (11-1)

Lost at No. 16 Texas, 27-17

4. Georgia (11-1)

Won at No. 23 Georgia Tech, 16-9

5. Texas Tech (11-1)

Won at West Virginia, 49-0

6. Oregon (11-1)

Won at Washington, 26-14

7. Ole Miss (11-1)

Won at Mississippi State, 38-19

8. Oklahoma (10-2)

Defeated LSU, 17-13

9. Notre Dame (10-2)

Won at Stanford, 49-20

10. Alabama (10-2)

Won at Auburn, 27-20