Notre Dame snags the final spot

Ultimately, the better résumé won out. In the end, Notre Dame’s ugly last game — a 34-10 rout at the hands of Clemson in Saturday’s ACC Championship game — didn’t cost the Irish a spot in the College Football Playoff. Overall results prevailed over recency bias.

The Irish snagged the heavily debated last seed on Sunday, and will meet No. 1 Alabama, back in the playoff after missing out for the first time last year, at At&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on New Year’s Day. In the other semifinal matchup Clemson, ranked second, will face No. 3 Ohio State in New Orleans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in a rematch of last year’s Fiesta Bowl won by the Tigers. It will also be the second meeting between Georgia quarterbacks and friends Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, potentially the first quarterbacks taken in April’s NFL draft.

“In the end, the committee felt Notre Dame had earned its way there based on the complete analysis of its résumé, and that probably came down to having an extra win over a ranked team,” College Football Playoff committee head Gary Barta said on ESPN’s selection show.

Texas A&M f inished ranked fifth and Oklahoma, after knocking off Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday, was sixth. Undefeated Cincinnati wasn’t close — it was ranked eighth — another year in which a non power-conference school really had no shot at getting invited to the fourteam tournament.

“The committee decided that Ohio State belonged in the field because they are undefeated, they defeated two ranked teams, including [Saturday] night, and they won the Big Ten championship,” Barta said of the 6-0 Buckeyes. “Certainly, we talked a lot that there would be a difference in games played.”

Afte r Notre Dame’s one-sided loss to Clemson on Saturday, social media was f illed with debate over whether the Irish still belonged, since their one big win came over the Tigers without Lawrence and three defensive starters. Texas A&M was the team most thought was competing with Notre Dame.

The Aggies had won seven straight games, and lost just once, back on Oct 3, to Alabama, 52-24. But Notre Dame had four wins over teams above .500 and Texas A&M just two.

It had two top-25 wins, compared to one for its SEC counterpart.