Notre Dame-Miami Catch Debate & Playoff Ranking Metrics

But I do want to go back. Obviously, I'm a little bit on this game here with Miami Notre Dame here. What was your takeaway? And I just got through talking with someone else about catch or no catch. After seeing the videos, Chris, what do you think? Catch or no catch in that ballgame? I didn't think a catch, I mean, that was a catch in 1988, you know, when we remember that stuff, but it hasn't really been a catch now ever since Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson. I feel like we're kind of used to this insane process of the catch. Live, I didn't think it was. Lofton didn't really seem to think it was. I understand the case, but I think, eh, I didn't think it was a catch. But overall... I came away pretty impressed with Miami. I came out of that game feeling good about both teams. For Miami to fight back like they did on the road without Malachi Toney, that was an adjustment to figure what that was out. I think they come out of that game a lot tougher of a team, a bit of a chip on the shoulder now with the way the game ended. And as long as you can get Malachi Toney back by the postseason, I would still feel pretty good about the game. What does a win like that, in your eyes, do for a team like Notre Dame? I mean, you know, when you look at the schedule that they've had this year, compared to even the schedule they had a year ago, they had a lot of tougher opponents on that schedule. What does a win like that do for Marcus Freeman and his guys? I mean, they had to have it. I mean, if they lost this game, they were going to miss a college football playoff two years in a row. And it would have marked two straight years without a big win. I mean, they played two, like, top 10 teams last year, lost to both of them close, lost again to BYU to start this year. There's not that many opportunities for Notre Dame to get these big wins just based on the quality of the opponents turn out to be. And if you'd gone two straight years without getting kind of a big win... It makes you question just kind of what is this Notre Dame program? Can Marcus Freeman get them over the hump? They went to the national championship game in 2024, but outside of that, it's a lot of like, okay, pretty good. Can you take that next level? You've got to win some of these games. They win this game. Unless they get upset by SMU, I don't see them missing the playoff, and then we'll see where they go from there. You know, I've been asking this question also about the metric. Chris, what's the metric? That the committee is using, is it strength of schedule? Is it conference strength? Is it common opponents? What are they using? Because it's so all over the place the last two weeks. I don't really know how they're ranking these teams. I look at UCLA, they're sitting at number four and I'm like, UCLA hasn't played against a ranked team all year. And you got them the fourth best team in the country. I know Oregon at the time was ranked, but I mean, you look at that schedule they've played. They've played nobody also. They haven't played a ranked team yet this year. What metric are the committee using? Well, UCLA, I mean, Oregon is ranked now. They're back up to number 16 because they've suddenly won two games in a row. That's one of the reasons UCLA jumped up from, what, eight, seven or eight to four. Suddenly that Oregon win looks a lot better than it did at the time. And when you're an undefeated, you're just, you're an undefeated Power 4 team. You're going to be up there. But for everybody else, they're just leaning on big wins. That is clearly what the committee values, big wins, strength of schedule. They added a strength of record metric last year, which is like strength of schedule, but also takes into account how you did against those teams. And that's why Alabama's up there at number three with two losses, because they won big on the road at Kentucky. They beat South Carolina big. Beat LSU big on the road and Mississippi State when they were full strength. And they won all those games by three touchdowns. So they're winning those big games and winning them big. That's why Tennessee is not in the same group getting compared to them. I think Tennessee should be ahead because they played and Tennessee won by 16. But Alabama's resume otherwise is very, very strong. The three-point loss to Georgia at home, controversial with the non-call to pass interference. And if you just. It's big wins. That's why it's where they're at. It's why Miami fell all the way to number seven with the loss because they only have the Wake Forest win, and that's about it. If you only have one kind of notable win, you're more prone to falling. It's also why Indiana fell from, what, four to nine despite not playing because they got jumped by five teams who got big wins. Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, and UCLA. Like that is. Indiana doesn't have any big wins to lean on. They got USC this week, and they got to win that one.