Notre Dame Football: Are Irish or Texas A&M more deserving?

How much will recency bias play a part in the committee’s decision?

There are few teams with more similar resumes than Notre Dame football and Texas A&M. This season is the season for the committee to expand, even for just this COVID-stricken season. What you have in Notre Dame and Texas A&M are two teams with bad losses –in different times of the season– and similar good wins. Which losses and wins hold more weight in the eyes of the committee?

The Aggies’ resume:

After their blowout loss to the Crimson Tide, the Aggies won seven straight games. The sticking point is they were not competitive against Alabama. A&M’s two best wins of the season came against the Florida Gators, who put up quite the fight against the Alabama Crimson Tide last night. Texas A&M left a good impression with their thorough 34-13 win against Tennessee yesterday afternoon.

The Aggies do have some clunkers on their schedule as well. There’s the “don’t put too much on tape” 17-12 debacle against a terrible Vanderbilt team. Arkansas put up a fight against the Aggies as well. Then there was the 20-7 game against LSU that was ugly.

The Irish’s resume: 

Notre Dame came into last night’s game undefeated. After their ugly 12-7 win against Louisville, the Irish outclassed their other opponents with an overtime classic against Clemson wedged between some impressive wins. Just like A&M back in October, the Irish were not competitive against Clemson last night.

Notre Dame allowed some bad teams to move the ball against them. Duke and Florida State, two of the worst teams in the ACC, had some success offensively against Notre Dame. Though the committee has said that margin of victory is not a factor, that could be put to the test deciding between these two teams.

Speaking of point differential, Notre Dame’s is about +15, and Texas A&M is about +10, so it is not a huge margin. If the Committee has issues deciding between these two teams, they could pick Cincinnati.