Fox Sports college football insider Joel Klatt makes case for Miami Hurricanes over Notre Dame in College Football Playoff
The Miami Hurricanes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish both ended the regular season with 10-2 records.
In most cases, the Hurricanes would win the tiebreaker. It's the reason Fox Sports college football insider Joel Klatt feels UM deserves a spot in the College Football Playoff ahead of the Fighting Irish.
"Every tiebreaker in sports is head-to-head," Klatt said during an appearance on First Things First earlier this week. "It's known to man on the face of the planet. What is the first criteria in the tiebreaker? Head to head. Yeah. So what are we doing? And yes at some point they're going to be compared directly. Here's why Notre Dame is in a pickle. And actually I would bet on Notre Dame missing the playoffs, even though they're not going to play another game and Miami is not going to play another game. The canary in the coal mine right now is BYU. They're protecting Notre Dame from a direct comparison with Miami, but BYU is going to move because they play another game. They're going to either pass Notre Dame and knock them out if they beat Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game, or they will lose and probably fall behind Miami, thus putting Miami and Notre Dame right next to each other. And then the committee will have no other option.
Klatt said he thinks Miami and BYU are more deserving than Notre Dame and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
"I also believe that there's a little bit, not that this is sinister, but I think that there's a little bit of protection to the ACC because there's a situation out there where if Duke were to win the ACC, the ACC would just be on the outside of the playoff and their only hope would be an at-large spot for Miami," Klatt said. "So I think that the committee is giving themselves a buffer by moving Notre Dame down to 10 and Alabama passing them for no reason after beating a bad 5-7 Auburn team, but all of a sudden they switch spots. Why? So they can get one spot closer to Miami and then BYU will play this out and then the committee will be like, well it was out of our hands. All of a sudden they're next to each other. Look at that. And then they can put Miami in. So I think that either BYU or Miami is going to be in the playoff and I do think Notre Dame is going to miss out."
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of MiamiRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com