Notre Dame’s athletic director, Pete Bevacqua, didn’t hold back his frustration when the playoff committee snubbed the Fighting Irish. Bevacqua felt that their impressive run of ten straight wins, following a 0-2 start, should have smoothly earned them a spot in the expanded 12-team playoff. The playoff committee chairperson, Hunter Yurachek, tried to justify his selection.

Before getting into that, let’s understand the situation a bit deeper. Bevacqua’s primary problem was the committee’s inconsistent reasoning. All season long, Notre Dame was ranked higher than Miami until the final 12-team playoff bracket was released.

The final ranking didn’t respect that logic, prioritizing a head-to-head loss from the very first week of the season.

Pete Bevacqua argued that the committee never clearly explained why they changed their minds at the last second, especially winning by all their games by double-digit.

On December 8, CBS’s Brandon Marcello hopped onto CBS Sports HQ with the chairman. He asked for his opinion on Pete Bevacqua’s frustration over Notre Dame being snubbed from the playoffs without a proper explanation and their decision to opt out of a bowl game.

Moreover, Hunter Yurachek started by saying that the committee stayed up very late, almost until 3 a.m., debating which of the three teams between Bama, U, and the Irish should get the two available playoff spots.

“What we knew as a committee based on how the championship games played out, that we had three deserving teams, but only two spots for those three deserving teams, someone was going to feel just like Notre Dame felt as the results came out, whether that be Notre Dame, Miami or Alabama. Unfortunately, it was Notre Dame.”

He also showed some empathy, saying he really felt for the young players and the schools involved, just as the whole committee did when the rankings were released that morning.

Yurachek’s main point is that the committee’s choice wasn’t personal, but a numbers problem. If Hunter had picked Notre Dame over Miami, the Hurricanes fanbase would feel the same.

There was no perfect solution because with only two spots and three deserving teams, someone would inevitably feel snubbed.

Committee cites technical metric favoring Miami over Notre Dame

Hunter Yurachek explained that the committee moved Miami ahead of BYU because of the program’s subpar performance in its championship game. BYU lost to Texas Tech for the second time. The committee felt that the result made Miami more deserving of moving up.

Once Miami passed BYU, the committee directly compared Miami and Notre Dame. Both teams had similar schedules, results, and common opponents. The deciding factor became the head-to-head game, which Miami had won.

Yurachek even asked the committee to rewatch the game, as it occurred early in the season. After reviewing it, they decided Miami deserved the spot.

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People then questioned why this wasn’t mentioned earlier as a deciding factor. On paper, the teams were nearly identical, so the head-to-head result became the tiebreaker.

Yet, Yurachek faced criticism for failing to use the same reasoning in different scenarios. When Miami and Louisville were close in the rankings, the committee did not use head-to-head, even though Louisville had beaten Miami. Yurachek said context matters.

At that time, Miami had lost two of its last three games. They were already ranked lower than Louisville. Rankings, he said, are based on more than one game. They also consider recent performance and the overall résumé.

The truth is simple. The new 12-team playoff system still has flaws at its core. There is no straightforward step-by-step process for selection. Yurachek was struggling to justify decisions that were not entirely consistent.