The College Football Playoff committee made a subtle move this week - but one that carries serious implications - by flipping Alabama and Notre Dame in the No. 9 and No. 10 spots of its penultimate rankings. On paper, it’s a one-slot shuffle. In reality, it could be the difference between a shot at the national title and sitting at home in January.
Notre Dame, fresh off a dominant 49-20 win over rival Stanford, found itself dropped behind Alabama, which eked out a 27-20 victory over Auburn in the Iron Bowl. The Fighting Irish were up 42-6 heading into the fourth quarter - a blowout by any standard.
Meanwhile, Alabama needed late-game heroics to escape Jordan-Hare Stadium with a win. So naturally, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman had questions.
“Obviously you're disappointed, but more so because of a little bit of confusion,” Freeman said Wednesday. “You're confused in terms of what we could have done differently and why we fell when we won 49-20.”
And he’s not wrong to wonder. Stanford and Auburn are both unranked, with Auburn holding just one more win than Stanford.
So if strength of opponent is the tiebreaker, it’s a slim margin. And if dominance of performance is part of the equation - well, Notre Dame made its case loud and clear on the field.
“You always look for cause and effect,” Freeman added. “You look for a reasoning why you go up or you fall. For me, you didn’t see a great explanation for why we fell when we had the performance we did last Saturday.”
In a vacuum, the difference between No. 9 and No. 10 might not seem like much. But in the new 12-team College Football Playoff format, every spot matters - especially when you’re hovering around the final at-large bids.
As it stands, if the favorites take care of business in this weekend’s conference championship games, Notre Dame could slide into the final at-large slot. But if No.
11 BYU pulls off an upset against No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship Game, the Cougars could crash the party - and Notre Dame might be the team left on the outside looking in.
So why did the committee make the switch?
Hunter Yurachek, Arkansas athletic director and the newly appointed chair of the CFP selection committee, offered some insight. According to Yurachek, the debate between Alabama and Notre Dame has been one of the most closely contested discussions in the committee room over the past three weeks.
“I think this week, as we looked at those two teams and how closely they have been over the past three weeks - Notre Dame went on the road and had a strong win at Stanford, but Alabama went on the road in a rivalry game, looked really good,” Yurachek said during Tuesday’s rankings show. “I think that was enough to change the minds of a couple of committee members to push Alabama up ahead of Notre Dame in this week’s rankings.”
It’s worth noting that Alabama’s move up the board could potentially insulate the Crimson Tide from falling out of the top 12 if they lose to No. 3 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. The committee has historically shown reluctance to penalize teams harshly for a loss in a conference title game - what they call the “13th data point.”
But Yurachek pushed back on that idea, saying the possibility of a loss to Georgia wasn’t factored into this week’s rankings. That, he said, will be a conversation for after the championship games are played.
Still, the optics are hard to ignore. Alabama gets a narrow win in a rivalry game and moves up.
Notre Dame dominates its rival and drops a spot. For Freeman and the Irish, it’s a frustrating twist in a playoff race where every detail - every drive, every score, every opponent - is under the microscope.
Now, all eyes turn to the weekend. If the top teams hold serve, Notre Dame might still get its shot. But if chaos strikes in the Big 12, the Irish could find themselves on the wrong side of the bracket - and left wondering what more they could’ve done.