Rece Davis grills CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek on snubbing Notre Dame for Miami

While the rationale behind the College Football Playoff selection committee's decision to put Miami into the bracket over Notre Dame makes sense, thanks to the Hurricanes' head-to-head win, the committee's process is coming under heavy criticism.

Sunday's bracket reveal marked the first time since the committee started releasing rankings in early November that Miami was ranked ahead of Notre Dame. Neither team played on championship weekend, and the Fighting Irish were ranked two spots ahead of the 'Canes in the penultimate rankings on Tuesday.

When committee chair Hunter Yurachek joined ESPN to discuss the thought process behind the decision, host Rece Davis made sure to get some answers.

Yurachek had come under fire in recent days and weeks for his answers to questions about the rankings. When Yurachek appeared on ESPN's "College GameDay" on Saturday, legendary coach-turned-analyst Nick Saban turned to Davis and asked, "Did he answer any of the questions you asked? Or did I miss that?"

When Davis had another chance to question Yurachek on Sunday, he pressed the committee chair harder. 

Here's what you need to know about Yurachek's explanation for the controversial Miami-Notre Dame decision. 

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CFP committee chair Hunter Yurachek explains Notre Dame-Miami decision

When pressed by Davis, committee chair Hunter Yurachek confirmed BYU's loss forced the committee to evaluate Notre Dame and Miami head-to-head. 

"The one metric we had to fall back on was the head-to-head," Yurachek said, explaining that the team's resumes were otherwise nearly identical. 

Davis took issue with the explanation. "I don't have a problem with the outcome, I'm asking about the process. So you're telling me head-to-head never came up until they were side by side?" He asked. 

After Yurachek admitted the committee was not able to evaluate the two teams "side by side" until there were no other teams between them, Davis again asked why Miami and Notre Dame couldn't be compared against each other when they were two or three spots apart. 

MORE: Why CFP committee put Miami in over Notre Dame

"We thought Notre Dame was better than BYU and deserved to be ranked higher than BYU. We thought BYU deserved to be ranked higher than Miami," Yurachek said of Tuesday's penultimate rankings, reiterating that the committee did not compare Notre Dame and Miami head-to-head because of the team between the two.

Here’s College Football Playoff chair Hunter Yurachek’s answer for why Notre Dame vs. Miami’s head-to-head result didn’t matter for five weeks but all of a sudden it did on selection day.

Spoiler: It’s not a good one.

The CFP committee completely contradicted itself all along. Pic.twitter.com/EnxrPtZwyZ

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) December 7, 2025

Yurachek told ESPN he had the committee re-watch Miami's win over Notre Dame from September, stating multiple times that BYU's loss changed the equation and forced a closer look between the Hurricanes and Fighting Irish. Because Notre Dame and Miami were not ranked back-to-back on Tuesday, the committee did not place as much emphasis on the head-to-head result. With BYU dropping, Miami pulled within one spot of Notre Dame and led the committee to place more emphasis on the head-to-head result.

Yurachek also said the possibility of no ACC team making the playoff had no impact on the committee's decision. 

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College Football Playoff bracket

Here is the complete 12-team College Football Playoff bracket as revealed on Sunday:

College Football Playoff schedule 2025