
Notre Dames best wins are considered to be Pitt and USC. One is an unranked, 4 loss team and the other is a 3 loss, low ranked team. They lost to the other 2 ranked teams they played one of which being Miami. Doesn’t matter how many power 4 schools they play if they can’t win the games that matter.
5 of the 8 were ACC and they were all blowouts. Alabama finished the season beating a coachless LSU, a coachless 5-7 Auburn, and a 4-8 SC by a total of 25 points and losing to the two ranked teams they played in that stretch. In that same time, Notre Dame won its 5 games by a total of 168. Alabama also has a significantly worse loss in 5-7 FSU.
Wins shouldn’t be the only thing that matters. Notre Dame’s losses are by 4 points to two playoff teams. If Texas is getting punished for losing to Florida, Alabama should get punished for losing to FSU. If every other team to lose a conference championship gets punished, so should Alabama. If the reason for moving Bama up last week was its run game, they should get punished for -3 rush yds vs Georgia.
Notre Dame has a contract with the ACC. Otherwise they wouldn’t be obligated to schedule those cupcakes. Outside of the ACC was RANKED USC, Miami, and A&M, MWC Champ Boise State, 9-2 Navy, Arkansas is a cupcake, and Purdue is a cupcake but technically a rival that would be scheduled regardless. Notice how there’s no FCS teams or bottom-tier G5 teams?