Notre Dame has been playing with its back against the wall all season long, especially after losing their first two games. The Fighting Irish always seem to have to fight a little harder and be perfect compared to other teams because they are not in a conference. However, they are aligned to play a lot of teams, but a conference that isn't sending a lot of teams to the College Football Playoff this season.
Of course, Notre Dame tries to make the most competitive schedule, but some of it comes down to how other teams are competing. The biggest games on Notre Dame's schedule this season were their season opener against Miami and then their game in week 3 after a bye week against Texas A&M.
In the newest CFP rankings, Texas A&M is still holding very strong at No. 3, and Miami came in ranked No. 13, so both teams are still being looked at kindly by the committee. However, some still want to know why Miami is behind No. 9 Notre Dame, even though they beat the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame's losses are more quality than Miami's losses
The College Football Playoff committee has made it pretty clear with their rankings what they think of Notre Dame and Miami's head-to-head matchup, but finally, new committee chairman Hunter Yurachek has made it clear what the committee's thoughts are.
"I think when you look at Notre Dame and Miami, we really compare the losses of those two teams,” Yurachek said. “Miami has lost to two unranked teams, Notre Dame has lost to two teams we have ranked in our Top 13."
The committee is looking at which teams are losing to and taking that into the biggest consideration. Yurachek even went on to talk about how the committee isn't even comparing the two teams right now because they aren't even really in the same tier to be compared.
However, this doesn't mean that Notre Dame and Miami will never be compared as being in the same tier. If some crazy things happen between Notre Dame and Miami, and the Hurricanes may win the ACC Championship, the committee will start to bring that head-to-head matchup into the conversation.
For now, though, Notre Dame just needs to focus on winning and trying to climb those rankings to get home-field advantage.