CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek reveals if Notre Dame, Miami could move based on conference championships

College Football Playoff committee chair Hunter Yurachek made it clear Saturday morning that nothing is locked in for Notre Dame or Miami heading into Championship Weekend. 

Appearing on ESPN’s College GameDay, Yurachek acknowledged that the committee is prepared to reevaluate the Irish and Hurricanes. The two teams have similar résumés, but a decisive head-to-head result remains. Once the final slate of games concludes, the final spot might come down to that metric.

Rece Davis asked the question Notre Dame fans have been losing sleep over all week. What, if anything, could cause Miami to leapfrog the Irish on Selection Sunday?

“We’ll evaluate what happens in today’s championship games,” Yurachek said. “There will be some impact on what the record strength of teams will be, what the schedule strength of teams will be. There will be a difference in the win-loss record, potentially common opponents, and of course, the head-to-head metrics. 

“Watching those games, we’ll use all of those tools in our toolbox to re-rank those teams, tonight and in the early morning hours.”

Notre Dame has remained ahead of Miami in every CFP release since October, despite the Hurricanes owning the head-to-head win from Aug. 31. At the moment, Miami sits at No. 12 heading into the final weekend, while Notre Dame is No. 10. 

BYU, who’s sitting at No. 11, is playing in the Big 12 Championship. They’ve served as the buffer that has prevented the committee from being forced into a direct comparison between the Irish and Hurricanes. If BYU loses to Texas Tech again and falls behind Miami, that buffer likely disappears.

Mario Cristobal: ‘You get to settle it on the field, where head-to-head is always the No. 1 criteria’

Continuing, Davis pressed Yurachek on whether the committee is favoring film study over metrics this year, as trends have suggested: “Our three coaches and our former player watch a lot of tape,” Yurachek added. “That’s just one of the things we use. But watching games is very important to our evaluation of each of these teams.”

All told, that evaluation could put Notre Dame in a precarious spot. The Irish have won 10 straight but hold zero wins over top-15 opponents, navigating a schedule filled with some lesser teams across the Power Four. 

Miami, despite sitting out Championship Weekend due to ACC tiebreaker chaos, owns the best win in the comparison in its victory over Notre Dame. Throw in the looming SEC Championship, the Big 12 title game with BYU and the Group of 5 auto-bid, and the Irish may need chaos avoided rather than created.

“You get to settle it on the field, where head-to-head is always the No. 1 criteria,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal previously said. That’s a statement that should make South Bend uneasy if the committee finds itself forced to compare the two directly.

Whether Notre Dame stays ahead, Miami surges or both get left out entirely, Yurachek’s comments reaffirm one thing, and that’s the fact that Championship Saturday still matters. For the Irish and Hurricanes, Selection Sunday may be as tense as any game they played this season.