Notre Dame suddenly missing a head coach appears to have had an adverse effect on its College Football Playoff chances. Some were surprised to see Oklahoma State jump the Irish in the latest rankings. When asked about it on ESPN shortly after the rankings were unveiled, committee head Gary Barta said recent events such as the ones in South Bend are allowed to be factored into the rankings:
CFP chair Gary Barta on Notre Dame: "The committee is aware of all the coaching changes while we were going through the rankings, this week it didn't apply…Once the championship games wrap up, our protocol does include the ability to consider a player/coach not being available" pic.twitter.com/ixSyChCBuh
— ✯✯✯✯✯ (@FTB_Vids_YT) December 1, 2021
So yeah, the Irish appear to have been handed a raw deal through no fault of their own, fair as it might be. We don’t know exactly how good their chances of cracking the top four in the end were before Monday, but what transpired during the course of the day clearly didn’t do them any favors. Now, they’re going to have to pray even harder that enough chaos occurs during championship weekend that they can get in after all. Cutthroat is the world of college football.