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CFP Committee Chair Explains Final Bracket, Miami & Alabama Over Notre Dame · Bleacher Report

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  Speaker 1: Welcome in IM's cage at Menjon Set joined by College
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  Speaker 1: Football Playoff Committee Chair Hunter e Achech Hunter, thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much for being with us.
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  Speaker 2: First, how are you feeling right now? Bracket is set?
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  Speaker 2: I know you've got a lot of interviews, but how
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  Speaker 2: are you.
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  Speaker 3: Feeling, Beija, I'm doing great to just walk about one
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  Speaker 3: of the TV sets and ESPN's starting to talk about
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  Speaker 3: some of the matchups moving forward, and I think that's
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  Speaker 3: where we need to be talking about the matchups moving
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  Speaker 3: forward in the excitement of the College Football Playoff.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, well, we will get to those matchups.
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  Speaker 1: I will ask you questions about that, but I do
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  Speaker 1: have to ask some other questions now. I do know
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  Speaker 1: it was reported that the committee was up till two
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  Speaker 1: thirty in the morning debating.
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  Speaker 2: Notre Dame, Alabama Miami.
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  Speaker 1: Why was it ultimately Miami that got the nod in
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  Speaker 1: over Notre Dame.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And it was a process that we went through.
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  Speaker 3: In the first process was just creating a continue to
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  Speaker 3: have that separation between Alabama at nine and Notre Dame
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  Speaker 3: at ten. And we felt like Alabama, based on being
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  Speaker 3: the number one unseed in the SEC Championship game, the
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  Speaker 3: strength of schedule that they had already with probably the
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  Speaker 3: best win in the country at Georgia early in the season,
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  Speaker 3: regardless of their performance, which we acknowledged was not great
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  Speaker 3: in the SEC Championship game, they deserved to remain at
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  Speaker 3: that nine spot in Notre Dame for the time being
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  Speaker 3: at ten. And then we looked at the BYU and
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  Speaker 3: how they performed in the Big twelve Championship game, a
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  Speaker 3: second matchup with Texas Tech with a very similar result
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  Speaker 3: where BYU was dominated on both sides of the ball
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  Speaker 3: as they were about a month ago, and we moved
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  Speaker 3: Miami ahead of BYU, and then that put Miami in
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  Speaker 3: Notre Dame at ten and eleven, respectively.
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  Speaker 4: And then we started to compare.
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  Speaker 3: Miami in Notre Dame and you look at the resumes
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  Speaker 3: of those two teams, both ten and two teams had
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  Speaker 3: some common opponents that they won by roughly the same
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  Speaker 3: scores in those games, very similar from a statistical standpoint.
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  Speaker 3: And then, of course you've got to go back to
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  Speaker 3: the September Labor Day matchup where Myami beat Notre Dame.
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  Speaker 3: I'm in that game by three points, and I think
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  Speaker 3: that was in the mind of the committee what moved
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  Speaker 3: Miami ahead of Notre Dame into that tenth spot.
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  Speaker 1: Now I have to ask because of the BYU factor here,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the conversation around them playing in their conference
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  Speaker 1: championship game, Alabama playing in their conference championship game. I've
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  Speaker 1: heard you say the committee can use those games as
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  Speaker 1: a marker. It's not necessarily one way or the other.
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  Speaker 1: But what was so big on the Miami side of things,
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  Speaker 1: or excuse me, the BYU side of things that you
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  Speaker 1: felt like that factored more in than the Alabama side
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  Speaker 1: of things.
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  Speaker 2: Just the overall resume.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the overha resume and the fact that Alabama had
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  Speaker 3: already beaten Georgia once this year. Both teams had an
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  Speaker 3: opportunity Alabama at Georgia and BYU at Texas Tech earlier
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  Speaker 3: in the year. Alabama won that matchup over Georgia had
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  Speaker 3: to head in the regular season. BYU lost at Texas
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  Speaker 3: Tech and convincing fashion, and by you lost on a
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  Speaker 3: neutral side field and convincing fashion on Saturday. The biggest
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  Speaker 3: difference between those two conference championship games and how we
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  Speaker 3: compared those teams and kept Alabama where they were and
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  Speaker 3: moved BYU down one is that Alabama had beaten the
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  Speaker 3: team earlier in the year that they played in the
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  Speaker 3: conference championship game and lost to and BYU had a
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  Speaker 3: second loss to that same team in Texas Tech.
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  Speaker 1: I think one of the main questions, of course, with
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  Speaker 1: this Notre Dame Miami conversation is why now, how come
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  Speaker 1: not earlier this week? What was the conversation around that,
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  Speaker 1: maybe before the rankings we got before this, and how
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  Speaker 1: come it ended up being this result as of today.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, as I mentioned a few times, when we did
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  Speaker 3: our first ranking back in early November, Miami was a
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  Speaker 3: loser of two or three games, and they entered our
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  Speaker 3: poll at eighteen. They're the winners now with four consecutive games,
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  Speaker 3: and had been playing much better and had been creeping
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  Speaker 3: up from eighteen to sixteen, sixteen to fourteen, and then
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  Speaker 3: finally to where they were this week, right there on
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  Speaker 3: the heels of BYU and Notre Dame and so not
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  Speaker 3: until this week were they directly side by side where we.
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  Speaker 4: Could compare them.
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  Speaker 3: They always had a team or two or three in
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  Speaker 3: between them.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, that makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about maybe teams that were on the bubble
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  Speaker 1: or campaigning for consideration, they maybe weren't necessarily in the
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  Speaker 1: conversation with your committee. But I'm curious with Texas and
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  Speaker 1: Vanderbilt at all part of the conversation yesterday or was
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  Speaker 1: this a little bit more focused on the games at
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  Speaker 1: hand and the teams we've already discussed.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, Texas and Vanderbilt were part of our conversation significantly
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  Speaker 3: last week, and I'll take Texas specifically in a sensince
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  Speaker 3: Texas was our highest ranked three loss team. They have
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  Speaker 3: losses on the road at Georgia, who's number three, and
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State, who is number two.
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  Speaker 4: They had one loss.
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  Speaker 3: Against the Florida team that ended up four and eight,
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  Speaker 3: which is why they were placed at thirteen. Vanderbilt, we
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  Speaker 3: have a lot of respect for the Vanderbilt team that
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  Speaker 3: came in at fourteen, and they were ten and two
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  Speaker 3: as well. Vanderbilt had some wins against teams that were
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  Speaker 3: previously ranked in their top twenty five, but they just
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  Speaker 3: did not have that signature win. And so Texas and
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  Speaker 3: Vanderbilt will both discussed and debated a week ago, not
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  Speaker 3: as much this weekend. Now.
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  Speaker 1: I know you've been a lot of interviews about this,
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  Speaker 1: but what conversation was happening in that room that maybe
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  Speaker 1: people aren't even talking about one that maybe surprised you
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  Speaker 1: that was brought up.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know that anything surprises that. It just
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  Speaker 3: it was, you know, what we knew, based on the
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  Speaker 3: results of the conference championship games had happened on Friday
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  Speaker 3: and Saturday, that whoever was the eleventh ranked team was
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  Speaker 3: going to be left out of the playoff, and they
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  Speaker 3: were going to be more than a deserving team that
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  Speaker 3: was not going to make the playoff based on not
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  Speaker 3: being one of the five highest ranked conference champions and
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  Speaker 3: not being one of the seven at large teams. And
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  Speaker 3: so that's why the debate into the early morning hours
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  Speaker 3: and then again rise to try to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: we did the best job to vet through those three
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  Speaker 3: teams and two you know, we had two spots and
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  Speaker 3: three teams that were vying for those and I think
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  Speaker 3: just the fact that how passionate people were for Alabama,
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  Speaker 3: how passionate people were for the committee for Miami, and
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  Speaker 3: how passionate they were for Notre Dame, it was really
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  Speaker 3: hard to come to a consensus in our room.
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  Speaker 4: And I think you've seen that.
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  Speaker 3: I've listened to some of the debates here in the
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  Speaker 3: past couple hours, and I think what we were debating
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  Speaker 3: in our committee room was what everybody was debating across
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  Speaker 3: this country outside of our committee room.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, any thought I do have to ask.
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  Speaker 1: Any thought to Duke at all being in this consideration
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  Speaker 1: and ranking them. I know earlier in the week we
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  Speaker 1: saw rankings where it essentially set up for James Madison
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  Speaker 1: to be in. But curious that there was any conversation
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  Speaker 1: after their performance last night.
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  Speaker 3: We did talk about Duke any other conference champions where
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  Speaker 3: we arrived at it was going to be very hard
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  Speaker 3: to put a five loss team into move them into.
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  Speaker 4: Our top twenty five, especially when you had.
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  Speaker 3: A James Madison team that was already in our top
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  Speaker 3: twenty five and won their conference championship game in convincing fashion.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that sort of we've talked about
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  Speaker 1: a lot as we view these each week is the
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  Speaker 1: comparison between conferences, and I know this year there was
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  Speaker 1: trying to use metrics and on metrics into the discussion
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more strength of resume versus strength of schedule,
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  Speaker 1: Any discussion on where those metrics lie in terms of
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  Speaker 1: value and where you guys felt like they fit into
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  Speaker 1: the conversation.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it fitted very heavily in the conversation,
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  Speaker 3: especially when you look at Alabama and Alabama's record strength
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  Speaker 3: and stick strength to schedule. We're in the high top
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  Speaker 3: five or six within the teams that are ranked in
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  Speaker 3: the top teve it was the highest strength of schedule
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  Speaker 3: Alabama had of all the teams in the top eleven,
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  Speaker 3: and so we leaned is. Again, I don't know that
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  Speaker 3: we put more weight on it than other things, but
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  Speaker 3: it was definitively something that we use, especially when we
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  Speaker 3: were debating Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame, because Alabama had
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  Speaker 3: a significant strength of schedule compared relatively to Miami and
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  Speaker 3: Notre Dame both.
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  Speaker 1: Now we know the playoff obviously has expanded, it's changed
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  Speaker 1: in many ways.
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  Speaker 2: Is there now?
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  Speaker 1: I know we get to enjoy the playoff, and I
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  Speaker 1: know we'll enjoy these games, but is there any thought
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  Speaker 1: to the way that this has sort of played out
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  Speaker 1: this year, adjustments and changes in the future.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's not the role of this selection committee. The
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  Speaker 3: role of the selection committee is for us to rank
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  Speaker 3: the teams one through twenty five, and from that we
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  Speaker 3: set the playoff bracket based on the five highest rank
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  Speaker 3: conference champions and the seven at large bids.
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  Speaker 4: Now, from my.
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  Speaker 3: Personal professional perspective, obviously, if we had an expanded field
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  Speaker 3: or conferences chose their conference championship participants differently, that could
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  Speaker 3: have made the job for the committee a little bit easier.
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  Speaker 3: But right now, what we're able to do as a
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  Speaker 3: selection committee is ranked the teams one through twenty five,
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  Speaker 3: evaluate the championship games based on how the conferences do
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  Speaker 3: their tie breakers and what teams they put into their
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  Speaker 3: championship games, and then delist our final rankings as we
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  Speaker 3: did this morning.
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  Speaker 1: And well, I mean, one of the things that I
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  Speaker 1: personally would love to see is maybe some some play
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  Speaker 1: in games because I feel like we've the head to
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  Speaker 1: head conversation. We know that week one head to head
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  Speaker 1: that we've talked about a lot has factored into this,
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  Speaker 1: but I feel like maybe closer to would be something
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  Speaker 1: that we could look at. Like you said, the committee's
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  Speaker 1: not in charge of that, but I think it could
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  Speaker 1: be something. We talked to coach Joey McGuire earlier of
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  Speaker 1: Texas Tech, and he said, Hey, if we had the
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  Speaker 1: debate between Notre Dame and Miami, maybe they played this
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  Speaker 1: weekend and we get to see that.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think of that?
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  Speaker 3: I'll tell you this is so this is not from
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  Speaker 3: Hunter year Chik, chair of the CFP Selection Committee. This
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  Speaker 3: is Hunter year Jech college football fan. Just think about
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  Speaker 3: if we had a playoff that included Notre Dame in
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  Speaker 3: Texas and Vanderbilt in Utah and BYU, how spectacular that
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  Speaker 3: that playoff would be. And so I look at some
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  Speaker 3: of those teams that are incredibly deserving. There's so much
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  Speaker 3: parity and college football right now. The talent is getting
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  Speaker 3: spread throughout teams in the top twenty, and you're really
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  Speaker 3: it's hard to compare these teams with the super conferences
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  Speaker 3: that you have, the variants in conference schedules from one
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  Speaker 3: conference to another, sometimes you get a better draw from
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  Speaker 3: one year to the next, and so it's becoming more
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  Speaker 3: and more challenging to evaluate these teams because of the
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  Speaker 3: parody that doesn't exist in college football.
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  Speaker 1: Well, then you also have Notre Dame, who, of course
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  Speaker 1: independent that conversation certainly would change it. They did up
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  Speaker 1: to play a game, So maybe we get that in
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  Speaker 1: the future. But as the committee member, what was the
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  Speaker 1: hardest sort of thing for you in terms of all
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  Speaker 1: of this in evaluating.
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  Speaker 3: Again page it's really you know, every team is really
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  Speaker 3: really good, and there's some statistical things I think if
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  Speaker 3: you just talk about Alabama or Miami or Notre Dame,
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  Speaker 3: those teams, there's some things you can draw that are
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  Speaker 3: really positive for all of those teams, and you can
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  Speaker 3: if you want to spin it for one team or
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  Speaker 3: the other, there's some things that you can definitively draw in.
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  Speaker 3: So really it was getting our twelve members to get us.
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  Speaker 3: We're never on the same page because we all have
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  Speaker 3: an individual vote, but at some point in time we
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  Speaker 3: have to get to somewhat of a consensus so that
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  Speaker 3: we can rank these teams. And so again, it was
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  Speaker 3: an endless debate on the merits of Alabama versus Notre
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  Speaker 3: Dame versus Miami that went into the early morning hours
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  Speaker 3: and again early this morning we woke back up and
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  Speaker 3: that was probably the hardest thing over the last six
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  Speaker 3: weeks to try to get to a consensus this morning
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  Speaker 3: because we knew, we knew as a committee how it
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  Speaker 3: was going to impact one of those three teams.
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  Speaker 1: All right, well, I'm going to ask you one last
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  Speaker 1: question as a fan.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, out of the first round, matchups. Which one are
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  Speaker 2: you most looking forward to?
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  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, you know, I think the Texas A and
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  Speaker 3: m Miami matchup is going to be really, really good.
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  Speaker 3: I think two really good football teams. Miami is going
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  Speaker 3: to go to a really tough place to play in
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  Speaker 3: College Station, with one hundred and five thousand plus people there.
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  Speaker 4: I think that's gonna be a great matchup.
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  Speaker 3: And then you've got that rematch of Oklahoma and Alabama
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  Speaker 3: at Oklahoma. That was a classic back in October between
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  Speaker 3: those two teams, and it'd be interesting to see how
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  Speaker 3: that game plays out as well. Well.
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  Speaker 1: Hunter, we appreciate you taking the time. Maybe now you
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  Speaker 1: get to rest a little and then enjoy the games
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  Speaker 1: as they go on, but we appreciate you spending time
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  Speaker 1: with us today.
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  Speaker 4: Page. Thank you very much. Have a great Sunday afternoon.