Notre Dame is ruining the College Football Playoff

By Chris Marler

College football always needs a villain. For a long time that villain was Alabama and/or the SEC. After last night’s college football rankings, it appears that they are again. But they shouldn’t be. 

Alabama jumped Notre Dame in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings, and the reasons why were unclear. 

“I think this week as we looked at those two teams and how closely they have been over the past three weeks, Notre Dame went on the road, had a strong win at Stanford, but Alabama went on the road and a rivalry game looked really good, especially in the first half, getting up 17 to nothing. (They) ran the ball well. Auburn came back at them. They had a great gutsy call on 4th-and-2, late in the (fourth) quarter to get a touchdown, and then got the turnover late in that game.”

Alabama moving ahead of ND is of course the right call, and UA never should’ve fallen behind ND in the first place, but Hunter Yurachek’s logic is a total walkback. He cites Game 12 to suddenly recognize what was obvious for 3 months. That said, Alabama making the CFP field…

— Chase Goodbread (@ChaseGoodbread) December 3, 2025

They moved up because they had a gutsy call on 4th and 2? That’s almost as ridiculous as last week, when Alabama was ranked behind Notre Dame, and Hunter Yurachek pointed to rushing yards as the reason.

This of course sparked a ton of debate online between fanbases where everyone outside of the SEC footprint immediately clutched to the familiar “SEC bias” pearls.

Why would Alabama move ahead of Notre Dame? Here’s a better question – why were they ever ahead of Alabama in the first place?

After you say, “They lost to Florida State,” then we can have an objective conversation.

Bama fans: Our resumè is better than Notre Dame’s by ever metric.

ND/CFB Fans: Notre Dame lost to Miami, but that was in week on. We are a much better team than we were in week one. Alabama lost to Florida State!

Bama fans: What week was that loss?

ND/CFB fans: It doesn’t… pic.twitter.com/MXhlXBaPeJ

— Chris Marler (@Vern_Funquist) December 3, 2025

That Alabama loss to Florida State is a bad loss. It’s the worst loss of any team in contention for the CFP. But, you know what I love about college football? They play 11 other games in the season. Isn’t that cool? I think so. 

What gets lost in all the smoke and mirrors around the FSU loss is how much stronger Alabama’s résumé actually is, not just compared to Notre Dame, but nearly everyone in the top 12.

“But, Alabama has the worst loss in the country.”

Sure. They also have the best win of anyone in the country through 14 weeks. And, if we are objectively talking about a full body of work, which is why we play the games, then someone needs to explain to me why we aren’t talking about them beating No. 3 Georgia on the road half as much as the FSU loss. Remember that game? Four weeks after the loss in Tallahassee they went to Sanford Stadium and became just the second team in eight years to beat Georgia at home.

That was the start of a four week stretch where they beat four ranked opponents (at the time) in four consecutive weeks without a bye. If that sounds impressive, it’s because it is. They were the first team in SEC history to accomplish the feat.

Tennessee and Missouri were a part of that run. While neither team is ranked anymore, Alabama still has two wins against top 15 teams in the current rankings. They could have had four, but with Tennessee and Missouri both finishing 8-4, with all four losses coming to top-15 opponents and three CFP teams, neither remains ranked. Don’t worry, North Texas, JMU, and an 8-4 Iowa team who is also 8-4 with zero ranked wins are all ranked.

Maybe the best way to compare Notre Dame objectively and fairly is just a side by side of all the metrics that the committee uses every week when ranking the teams? Does that sound fair? Ok, good. 

Ranked Wins

• Alabama: 2
• Notre Dame: 1

Strength of Schedule 

• Alabama: 11th
• Notre Dame: 42nd

Strength of Record 

• Alabama: 8th
• Notre Dame: 13th

Opponent Win Percentage

• Alabama: .568 (75-57)
• Notre Dame: .524 (75-68)

Win Percentage of Teams Beat

• Alabama: .555 (60-46)
• Notre Dame: .454 (54-65)

Again, I ask – why was Notre Dame ranked ahead of Alabama in the first place?

Because college football needs a villain, and no team has been a bigger one to the entire sport over the last 20 years than Alabama.

Alabama is the Yankees of college football. But there’s a reason why in almost every sport imaginable, especially baseball, you play a full season of games and don’t rank teams based on rushing yards, vibes and prisoner of the moment mentality. 

You can say, “Bama gets all the calls” You’d be wrong, but you can say that. And, out of the other 135 teams in FBS college football, I’d probably listen to 134 of them complaining about brand bias and conference bias when it comes to Alabama and the SEC. 

But, not Notre Dame. Notre Dame has been given more things in college football than every other program in the country. Heisman trophy seasons, despite going 2-8. Automatic bids to BCS and New Year’s Six bowls with ten win regular seasons. Hell, last year, they got a home playoff game when they lost to Northern Illinois in Week 2 and half their ranked wins were against Military institutes in neutral site games. That was an 11-1 season where they didn’t play a true road game from Sept. 15 until Nov. 29.

I will entertain the anti-Bama and anti-SEC rhetoric when it’s warranted. But, Notre Dame fans talking about getting an unfair shake is like Jussie Smollett levels of lacking self awareness.

Alabama isn’t the villain. They might be the boogeyman. Notre Dame, though? Notre Dame is absolutely the villain.