The College Football Playoff as it's currently laid out has some massive flaws, and at the top of that list is the fact that there's a committee of individuals picking which teams they view as the best teams. There isn't a set list of criteria, or a formula they use year over year as what they consider is constantly changing.
It turns out that this season, the College Football Playoff committee may value "good losses" more than they value wins. The biggest example of the fact that the committee values losses more than wins is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
The committee continues to show its flaws with Notre Dame
On Tuesday Night when the College Football Playoff committee unveiled its Top 25 rankings, Notre Dame was ranked 9th, and the two biggest teams who should have a gripe are Miami who's ranked 13th and Alabama who's ranked 10th.
When Hunter Yurachek explained the committee's rationale on ranking Miami behind Notre Dame, he stated that they evaluate the losses.
Hunter Yurachek explains how close Miami is to Notre Dame. pic.twitter.com/ZPp6A9BHE9
— Grant Speaks (@GrantSpeaks1) November 19, 2025
While Miami has lost to two unranked teams, Hunter Yurachek oddly explains that Notre Dame's two losses came against teams ranked in the Top 13, using the odd number of 13 to include Miami. The Hurricanes are being ranked lower for the quality of their losses, yet Notre Dame is being given a pass for losing to Miami.
Even if you choose to look past the fact the fact that Miami beat Notre Dame looking at their resumes as a whole, then there's no reason that the Fighting Irish should be ranked ahead of Alabama. The Crimson Tide have 2 ranked wins that are higher than Notre Dame's best win and 3 more ranked wins than the Fighting Irish.
Resume comparison between No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 Alabama:
— Blake Byler (@blakebyler45) November 19, 2025
Notre Dame:
- Win over No. 15 USC
- Losses to No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 13 Miami
Alabama:
- Wins over No. 4 Georgia, No. 14 Vanderbilt, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 22 Missouri
- Losses to No. 8 Oklahoma, Florida State
If the differentiating point for Alabama is going to be that they lost to Florida State who's a disaster, than the committee is contradicting itself as Hunter Yurachek claimed that Oregon still gets credit for beating Penn State before they fell apart.
“And you want to be my latex salesman.” pic.twitter.com/6UmIDzEFSi
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) November 19, 2025
The College Football Playoff committee is deeply flawed, and in many ways what they're asked to do is nearly impossible. The committee is asked to stack every team while there's no direct right or wrong way to unveil the rankings. This committee would almost be best off by not going on television and explaining their process leaves everything open for debate.