The Athletic, Notre Dame beat writer Pete Sampson reported on his X account on Tuesday night that College Football Playoff Committee Chair Hunter Yurachek stated that the Fighting Irish came out ahead of Miami regardless of the Hurricanes' win opening weekend.
Sampson stated that all games mattered, not just one of them. It clearly disregards the importance of head-to-head results. In every other major American sport, tiebreakers for the playoffs are decided by a head-to-head result.
The CFP committee has continually stressed the importance of Miami losing to two unranked teams and Notre Dame's losses occurring to the Hurricanes and Texas A&M. Miami no longer has two losses to unranked teams with SMU debuting in the rankings at 21 this week.
Miami has an opportunity for another ranked win on Saturday at number 22 Pittsburgh. Miami could be in a catch-22 if they beat Pittsburgh. The Hurricanes need a win to keep their hopes alive for a CFP berth, but the Panthers could drop out of the CFP rankings with a loss.
CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek says Notre Dame and Miami were in the same grouping this week and the programs were directly compared.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) November 26, 2025
Notre Dame still came out ahead, regardless of the head to head.
In other words, all the games mattered. Not just one of them.
The committee continues to have inexcusable reasons to keep Miami behind Notre Dame in the rankings. The ESPN Football Power Index rates Notre Dame 34th in strength of schedule and Miami 48th. Notre Dame is 12th and Miami is 15th in strength of record.
Miami and Notre Dame each have wins over North Carolina State and Syracuse. After this weekend, Miami and Notre Dame will have four common opponents. Miami beat Stanford where Notre Dame plays on Saturday. Miami is at Pittsburgh, which Notre Dame defeated on November 15.
Notre Dame is plus 114 and Miami is plus 97 against the common opponents that the Hurricanes and Fighting Irish have this season. Miami needs an impressive win against Pittsburgh and hope Notre Dame does not win by more than the 34-point margin Miami defeated Stanford by.
If Miami can win by bigger margins against three of its four common opponents than Notre Dame did, that might be something the committee considers. As it is, the message the committee is sending that head-to-head is not the first tiebreaker is not in line with every other American sport.