One of the biggest fan complaints about the current College Football Playoff rankings is that Notre Dame is ranked No. 9 while Miami is the top-seeded ACC program at No. 13.
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The Fighting Irish and Hurricanes both have 8-2 records, and Miami defeated ND 27-24 in Week 1.
Per the CFP selection committee, Notre Dame has better losses (weighing those against better wins), with defeats coming to the Hurricanes and No. 3 Texas A&M (by one point) in the first two games of its schedule. Miami lost to unranked programs, Louisville and SMU.
Head-to-head matchups should be important, but it’s not the only factor the CFP selection committee has to consider.
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The Irish defeated then-No. 22 Pittsburgh on Saturday, and will finish the regular season against ACC programs Syracuse on Saturday and Stanford on Nov. 29.
The Irish will play those games as a part of their agreement with the ACC to play approximately five games against conference teams each year. The agreement allows Notre Dame to play a robust Power 4 schedule while remaining independent and offers the ACC an opportunity to play an elite program on major networks like NBC, which helps with recruiting.
Fans on social media debated whether the agreement is beneficial to the ACC. Many suggested the conference should break the agreement and force Notre Dame to join a conference.
“I think the easiest way for the ACC to return to football glory is to end the relationship with Notre Dame. The ACC is only 12-53 vs the Irish since they “joined” in 2014. The ACC gets none of the CFP or NBC benefit but all of the losses,” wrote a fan.
“Not forcing ND football to join the ACC was Jim Phillips biggest mistake. End our scheduling agreement with ND and let them fend for themselves and they’ll see how fun it is to be actually independent,” argued Barstool ACC.
“The ACC needs Notre Dame more than Notre Dame needs the ACC,” argued a fan who thinks the conference should keep the Irish on the schedule.
“Half of ND’s schedule this season is against ACC teams. The commissioner needs to have a backbone and make them join full time for football to reap the benefits, or stop having their schools schedule games with them. Bottom line,” posted another.
“Wish all P4’s would agree not to schedule them until they join a conference,” hopes a poster.
“Every single year. Complete joke. ACC should end the schedule agreement immediately,” wrote another.
While Notre Dame is independent in football and is a Big Ten associate member for hockey, the Irish play 24 sports in the ACC, including men’s and women’s basketball.
For more on the NCAA, head to Newsweek Sports.
