A photo from the Big Ten championship showed Ohio State’s Lorenzo Styles Jr. breaking up a pass intended for Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr., a snapshot of the season that helped push Indiana to the top slot in the College Football Playoff. The selection committee on Sunday unveiled a 12-team bracket that placed Indiana at No. 1, a result that surprised few and angered some.
Notre Dame, coming off a 10-game winning streak and a 29-point season-finale victory while idle on Selection Saturday, was left out of the field. The Fighting Irish dropped two spots in the final rankings over the past two weeks and were passed over for two bubble berths that went to Alabama and Miami, prompting immediate criticism.
Alabama remained in the field despite a 28-7 loss to Georgia that many viewed as damaging. The committee said it did not penalize the Crimson Tide, citing a consistent policy of not docking teams for losing while playing in their conference title game. Miami earned its spot after a sequence of comparisons: once BYU lost, Miami was placed next to BYU and the Hurricanes moved ahead. Miami’s opening-week victory over Notre Dame was a factor; committee chairman Hunter Yurachek said he directed members to rewatch Miami’s Aug. 31 win so the side-by-side comparison everyone sought could be made.
The final at-large slot went to James Madison over Duke, leaving the ACC champion out of the bracket. Yurachek added that whether the ACC was represented did not influence the deliberations.
The full 12-team field: No. 1 Indiana (first-round bye); No. 2 Ohio State; No. 3 Georgia; No. 4 Texas Tech (first-round bye); No. 5 Oregon; No. 6 Ole Miss; No. 7 Texas A&M; No. 8 Oklahoma; No. 9 Alabama; No. 10 Miami; No. 11 Tulane; No. 12 James Madison.
First-round games are scheduled for Dec. 19-20: James Madison at Oregon; Tulane at Mississippi; Miami at Texas A&M; Alabama at Oklahoma. The CFP final is set for Jan. 19, to be played outside Miami.