The Notre Dame Fighting Irish inexplicably dropped from the #4 slot to #6 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings reveal, watching three teams jump them in the standings in spite of a win over Boston College on Saturday. Such a fate is a slap in the face to a team that's overcome nearly every obstacle put in its place this year, including a rash of season-ending injuries.
1. Conference Affiliation
Notre Dame's margin for error is razor thin compared to schools affiliated with a Power Five conference. As we saw last year, conference championships were weighed heavily in the CFP committee's final rankings -- just ask TCU and Baylor. Now, if everything holds up, it appears the Irish will get bumped based on the extra boost either Michigan State or Iowa will get with a Big Ten title game win.
They'll also likely play second fiddle to a one-loss Oklahoma team based half on OU's ending strength of schedule and half on the pressure the committee will have on it to place a Big 12 team in the field after last year's controversy. Heck, Baylor could even jump Notre Dame with the right luck.
In short, the Irish are getting penalized for not having a conference. Will it force Notre Dame to rethink its independent ways? We'll have to see how things shake out.
2. Committee Inconsistency
So wait...Oklahoma barely escapes against a severely shorthanded TCU squad at home and they get bumped up four spots. Notre Dame struggles but takes care of business in a glorified road game at Fenway Park against Boston College and they get dropped two spots.
Of course, shorthanded TCU > Boston College right now. But, why exactly is OU getting rewarded so heavily for needing a failed two-point conversion to beat a Horned Frogs team missing Heisman candidates at QB (Trevone Boykin) and WR (Josh Doctson)? Where's the logic here?
3. Nothing In Its Place
The College Football Playoff system is always going to be imperfect because of human interpretation. The "best teams" in the nation are going to be subject to the biases of a 12-member committee, no matter how calculated the committee says they are when they come up with each week's rankings. Notre Dame's only loss was by a missed two-point conversion to the #1 team in the nation. Oklahoma lost to an awful Texas team. Iowa hasn't played anyone. Why exactly are we punishing Notre Dame all of a sudden?
Just because. That's basically what the committee is telling us.
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