With reports that Miami superstar receiver Malachi Toney might not be able to play against Notre Dame, most Fighting Irish fans might think the Golden Domers just caught a break. However, there's another side to that coin.
The College Football Playoff committee has already made it clear that it doesn't respect Notre Dame's schedule. When asked why the Irish were No. 11, CFP Chair Hunter Yurachek said the team hadn't beaten any really good teams.
He also said that Notre Dame didn't need to worry about its seeding as long as it beat Miami. However, if the Irish beat the Hurricanes without Malachi Toney, the committee will have a built-in excuse to treat the win as beating a less-than-impressive Miami team.
It will be hard to keep the Irish out of the playoff if they beat Miami, even without Toney. However, it won't be impossible. Not for a committee whose logic was odd at best and, at worst, deeply, deeply flawed in explaining why Notre Dame was ranked No. 11 while Indiana was No. 4 in the first CFP Top 25.
NEWS: Miami star Malachi Toney is dealing with an injured ankle and his status for Saturday’s game against Notre Dame is uncertain, sources tell me and @max_olson. Toney is expected to press and attempt to play, given the magnitude of the game. pic.twitter.com/Uo38qFaLM8
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 4, 2026
Notre Dame football needs Miami win to impress CFP committee as Malachi Toney status clouds matchup
"Yeah, I think comparatively Indiana has five, six games against teams that are .500 and above, and they're 5-1 in those games. Notre Dame has two games against teams that are .500 and above," Yurachek claimed when asked about the disparity.
"They've won one of those games and lost the other one of those games. I think Notre Dame's overall body of work is against a strength of schedule that's not as strong as Indiana's. Again, Notre Dame has a great opportunity in front of them at home against the No. 1 team in our CFP ranking this weekend to get that signature win."
The Hoosiers' signature wins are against Minnesota (5-3), Michigan (5-3), Nebraska (5-3), Northwestern (6-2) and North Texas (6-2). Their other three wins are against Western Kentucky, Howard and Rutgers.
Notre Dame's wins aren't impressive, that's for sure. Their loss to BYU was a real slip-up, but was it really that much worse than Indiana's loss to Ohio State? Does that really mean Indiana ranks seven spots higher than the Irish?
If the committee can use this very strange logic (or lack thereof) to rank Marcus Freeman's squad so low that it's almost out of the playoff while two- and three-loss teams are in, then can we expect the committee to suddenly shoot them up the rankings if they beat a Malachi Toney-less Miami team?
Many Notre Dame fans who saw the reports that the wide receiver sprained his ankle at practice on Wednesday afternoon likely had a bit of hope that his injury would make it easier to beat the 'Canes. However, in a season where the margin of victory has been razor-thin, ND needs every edge it can get.
The same reports about Toney's injury said he's trying to push through it. Notre Dame fans can only hope he can. A win against Miami without Malachi Toney could end up being a strike against the Irish in the eyes of this whackadoodle CFP committee.
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