Why Notre Dame should have made College Football Playoff: Fighting Irish's dominance speaks for itself

Notre Dame's ruthless 10-game winning streak revealed national title potential

Understanding why Notre Dame should have been included in the College Football Playoff doesn't require an advanced analytics degree or an in-depth comparison of at-large candidates all boasting comparable resumes. The Fighting Irish's case is pretty simple.

Despite the fact that neither Notre Dame or Miami played over the weekend, the Hurricanes somehow overcame a two-spot gap on the Fighting Irish in the rankings to knock them out of the field. It makes no sense.

But let's forget that illogical move for a moment and consider the factors that prompted the committee to rank Notre Dame ahead of Miami in the first place. The Fighting Irish demonstrated a distinct level of dominance while winning 10 straight games that no one in their neighborhood of the rankings can match. 

Outside of Ohio State and Indiana, no team in college football was as systematically ruthless in acing the eye test as Notre Dame over the regular season.

If the CFP is about determining college football's best team, and it should be, Notre Dame should have been in without much debate. Among the cluster of five teams slotted between No. 8 and and No. 12 in the CFP Rankings after the regular season, the Fighting Irish were the only one with a top-15 scoring offense and scoring defense. Yet, they were left out.

Over the course of the 10-game winning streak, which included five victories over bowl teams, the Fighting Irish outscored the opposition by an average margin of 29.7 points. That margin would be even greater had their last three opponents not tacked on garbage-time scores.

Notre Dame's two losses came in its first two games by a combined four points against No. 7 seed Texas A&M and No. 10 seed Miami.

Had Notre Dame been blown out in those two games and then narrowly won its next 10 contests, this would be a different discussion. But even in those close losses against quality competition, Notre Dame showed flashes of the dominant team it would soon become.

ESPN's FPI, which is a predictive rating system, ranked Notre Dame No. 3 behind only Ohio State and Indiana entering conference championship Saturday. Sports Reference's simple rating system, which takes average point differential and strength of schedule into account, slotted the Irish at No. 4.

If you look at Sagarin ratings, which are a long-established tool for judging team strength, Notre Dame registers at No. 3 as of Selection Sunday.

Metrics aside, the thesis of Notre Dame's argument can be summarized like so: the Fighting look far more capable of winning a national championship than Miami, Alabama and Oklahoma, all of whom made the field.

Redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr has blossomed into a star, and the rushing attack led by Jeremiyah Love is one of the nation's best. Notre Dame's defense is once again among college football's best.

The Sooners are an offensively lifeless team surviving off turnover luck. Alabama has regressed offensively in the season's second half (and has an ugly loss at Florida State on its ledger). 

Then there's Miami. While the Hurricanes own a head-to-head win against the Fighting Irish from Week 1, they also suffered two losses against teams -- SMU and Louisville -- that finished unranked. Those poor showings were enough for the committee to drop the Hurricanes behind Notre Dame in every other batch of rankings until Selection Sunday.

So what changed on a day when neither played?

The logic doesn't add up.

A season ago, the Fighting Irish suffered an unimaginable Week 2 loss against Northern Illinois that dropped them, for a time, from the national discussion. They roared back with 11 straight wins to reach the College Football Playoff and then won three CFP games before losing to Ohio State in the title game.

This year's squad isn't weighed down by an ugly loss. It also boasts a more dynamic offense than last year's team and a similarly strong defense.

Last year's team was good enough to reach the national championship game, and this year's team is good enough to finish the job.

It should have been given the opportunity to prove it.