If you ask college football fans on Reddit who took the biggest loss of the first round of the playoff, the majority of sub-communities will unanimously say it’s Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish got snubbed from the playoffs in favor of Alabama and the Miami Hurricanes. According to Colin Cowherd, it was the right move by the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee.

“I do think the committee made the right choice,” Colin Cowherd said on The Herd podcast. “I said this when they put out the 12-team playoff. Aside from James Madison and Tulane, I thought they got it right. Texas had too many close games. Notre Dame just had to beat either A&M or Miami because the rest of your schedule was mostly garbage, and they couldn’t.

I thought that the college football committee, and I know it’s easier to rip everybody, but Bama and Miami winning was good for the committee, in my opinion.”

You could bet that Notre Dame fans literally had their hands up praying for either Alabama or Oklahoma, or both, to slip against higher-seeded opponents in their road games. Safe to say the committee made the right decision earlier this month based solely on the on-field action.

The most straightforward reason was simple: Miami beat Notre Dame head-to-head. They faced each other in the very first game of the season, and the Hurricanes handled Notre Dame in a 27–24 bout.

In Notre Dame’s case, the committee didn’t initially focus on that one game. But when the final selections were being made, and the teams were neck-and-neck, that victory became the tiebreaker.

Additionally, Mario Cristobal’s Miami had a slightly more brutal schedule overall throughout the year, while the Irish played only three Top 25 teams, losing two of them.

Alabama’s situation was a little different.

Kalen DeBoer’s Roll Tide actually made the playoffs with a 10–3 record after getting beat up pretty badly in their SEC Championship Game. Many people thought that loss should have disqualified them, but the committee looked past it.

They figured that playing in the brutal SEC meant Alabama’s three losses weren’t as bad as they looked, and they believed, based on the “eye test,” that the Crimson Tide was a top-12 team. They chose to reward the entire season’s body of work, not punish them for the title game.

The proof was in the pudding during the first-round games. Both Miami and Alabama won their matchups, which really made the committee look smart. Miami pulled out a 10–3 “slow day in the office” win over Texas A&M.

Besides, watching Alabama trail 17–0 against a top-three, pound-for-pound defense in the country, then make a comeback and score 34 points, should be enough to say the playoff committee made the right pick.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, chose to skip their bowl game after getting snubbed. That meant they had zero chance to actually play football and prove to the committee that they were wrong. It was a chaotic selection process, but the first-round results suggest the committee got the top 12 right all along.

However, word around the Big Apple is Notre Dame might take its third loss of the season without even playing.

New York Giants circling Marcus Freeman

The New York Giants are seriously flirting with the idea of luring Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman to New York. He is their favorite college football candidate to replace Brian Daboll as the Giants’ head coach.

Why Marcus Freeman, one might ask? For many reasons.

First, his track record. He’s 43–12 in just four seasons at South Bend, which has caught the attention of the Giants’ front office and bookmakers.

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Freeman is a defensive-minded head coach, which fits the Giants’ profile. He’s currently under contract with Notre Dame until 2030, but if the Giants really want him, that shouldn’t be a big deal if both parties agree.

The only question is whether Marcus Freeman would leave college football without accomplishing everything he wants. Plus, Freeman hasn’t opened up about it yet. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see him reach the NFL one day, making that jump this season would feel surreal.

Knowing that, the Giants aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket. They’re looking at several candidates for the job, including top NFL assistants like Jeff Hafley from the Packers and Lou Anarumo from the Colts.

It’s going to be an exhaustive search for sure.