New UCLA coach Bob Chesney’s James Madison football team bumped Notre Dame for the final spot in the College Football Playoff 12-team field revealed Sunday morning, setting up a busy stretch for Chesney as he juggles leading two programs.
Nobody paying attention for the past 24 months would be surprised to see Indiana — yes, Indiana — leading the way into this year’s College Football Playoff.
But anyone paying attention over the last 24 hours knew the only sure thing beyond that was that the selection committee was destined to get destroyed when it released the pairings for this season’s 12-team bracket on Sunday.
Most of that second-guessing and vitriol will be coming from Notre Dame, which was passed over in favor of Alabama, Miami and James Madison in the bracket. The Fighting Irish dropped two notches in the CFP rankings during the past two weeks, down to No. 11, despite a 10-game winning streak, winning their finale by 29 points and sitting on the couch Saturday.
No. 9 Alabama didn’t move in the CFP rankings after a 28-7 loss to No. 3 Georgia that looked worse than that. The committee didn’t count that against the Tide in keeping with a hazy policy that refrains from penalizing teams for playing in their league title game.
No. 10 Miami didn’t play either, but the Hurricanes’ 27-24 win over Notre Dame in Week 1 played a role in their move once the teams were grouped right next to each other after BYU lost its game on Saturday.
Committee chairman Hunter Yurachek said he directed the committee to rewatch the Miami-Notre Dame game again.
“Once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, we had the side-by-side comparison that everyone had been hungy for,” Yurachek said.
The committee’s other key decision during deliberations that went until 2:30 a.m. Sunday then picked up again after a short rest, was choosing James Madison over Duke for the final spot. The selection left the Atlantic Coast Conference champion out of the mix, but didn’t fully exclude the ACC because Miami made it.
Yurachek insisted that including the ACC — one of the Power Four conferences — in the playoff in some form played no role in the deliberations.
The rest of the field includes No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Texas Tech, which joined Indiana in getting first-round byes. The Hoosiers moved to No. 1 with their 13-10 win over the Buckeyes on Saturday — their first Big Ten title since 1967 — and their 1-2 positioning sets up a possible rematch in the national title game Jan. 19.
Then it was No. 5 Oregon, followed by Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami, Tulane and James Madison.
The playoffs start Dec. 19 with No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oklahoma. On Dec. 20, it’s No. 10 Miami at No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 11 Tulane at No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 12 James Madison at No. 5 Oregon.
The quarterfinals will feature Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve, then Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl, Indiana in the Rose Bowl and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.
A costly snub for Notre Dame
This is a particularly costly and painful snub for the Fighting Irish. They lost their first two games of the season — one to Miami, the other to Texas A&M — by a combined four points.
They did not play a tough schedule the rest of the way; it was ranked 44th, compared to 6th for Alabama but 45th for Miami. But they won all those games easily.
It also hurts the pocketbook. Where conferences split $4 million for each team they place into the first round, Notre Dame — as an independent — would have banked the full amount for itself.
Yurachek said the committee had not previously considered Miami’s Aug. 31 win over Notre Dame because there were always other teams in the mix, namely Alabama and BYU. The only real explanation for passing over Notre Dame was that BYU lost badly to Texas Tech and dropped to No. 12.
Alabama back in after snub last year
Alabama (10-3) is in despite three losses. Those who believe the Tide deserve it will look at these factors:
—An eight-game winning streak after that 14-point, season-opening loss to Florida State) that included a 24-21 victory at Georgia and wins over the likes of Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Missouri.
–The “You can’t lose ground for playing in the title game” argument. Last year, Alabama had three losses and was passed over for SMU, which was coming off a loss in the ACC title game. Using the same logic, someone other than the Tide needed to go this time.
Final College Football Playoff rankings
The following top 25 was released by the selection committee Sunday morning:
1. Indiana
2. Ohio State
3. Georgia
4. Texas Tech
5. Oregon
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma
9. Alabama
10. Miami
11. Notre Dame
12. BYU
13. Texas
14. Vanderbilt
15. Utah
16. USC
17. Arizona
18. Michigan
19. Virginia
20. Tulane
21. Houston
22. Georgia Tech
23. Iowa
24. James Madison
25. North Texas
Associated Press staff writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.
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