College Football Playoff chair on why Miami is over Notre Dame in final bracket: 'Side-by-side comparison'

Hunter Yurachek details what gave the committee the final verdict on the Hurricanes over the Fighting Irish

In the end, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee took the path of least resistance, bringing head-to-head into the conversation for the first time this season in their final placement of Miami over Notre Dame for the last at-large spot in Sunday's 12-team bracket.

Ninth-ranked Alabama did not move despite a 21-point loss to Georiga in the SEC Championship Game, centering the discussion on the Hurricanes and Fighting Irish for the last spot. Miami entered the final rankings at No. 12, while Notre Dame was No. 10.

Both teams were idle during conference championship weekend.

"We felt like the way BYU performed in their championship game, a second loss to Texas Tech in a similar fashion, was worthy of Miami moving ahead of them in the rankings," committee chair Hunter Yurachek said Sunday. "Once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, we had that side-by-side comparison. … The one metric we had to fall back on was the head to head. We charged the committee members to go back and watch that Miami-Notre Dame game."

Yurachek said Duke's win over Virginia and the idea of the ACC being excluded from the bracket entirely "had absolutely no impact" on the decision to include Miami at No. 10.

"Our charge is to rank the top 25 teams, then you fill out the 5 highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large spots for the bracket," Yurachek said.

Miami ended the season on a four-game winning streak with a margin of victory at 27.5 points per game. The Cougars, after losing to Texas Tech on Nov. 1, had won three straight at a 21 points per game clip prior to Saturday's 34-7 beatdown at the hands of the Red Raiders. 

The metrics were extremely tight when it comes to Miami's case against Notre Dame (10-2) and BYU (11-2) on paper. Game control was this committee's preferred metric as we've seen the last four weeks of rankings and ranked wins are supposed to mean something -- and they did during final deliberations.

In terms of common opponents as it relates to Notre Dame specifically, Miami beat NC State 41-7, Syracuse 38-10, Stanford 42-7 and Pittsburgh 38-7. And the Hurricanes beat three of the four common opponents shared with Notre Dame by an even wider margin.

Following Tuesday night's penultimate rankings, Yurachek left the door open for the Hurricanes. A loss for BYU placed Miami right behind Notre Dame for the first time during this playoff discussion and was the final data point needed for the boost.

"The management committee during the offseason provided some clarification to some comments that were made last year, and indeed idle teams can move following the results of the championship games," Yurachek said earlier this week. "And how they impact the teams that are around those that play in the championship game and data such as strength of schedule, teams that may be idle. So yes, teams that are idle can move up or down."

Miami will travel to seventh-seeded Texas A&M in the opening round.