Former Alabama RB highlights contradiction in having Notre Dame at No. 9 in CFP Top 25

Oct 18, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer looks on in the third quarter against the Tennessee Volunteers at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Leong-Imagn Images

Former Alabama football running back and CBS College Football analyst Damien Harris feels the College Football Playoff committee contradicted itself by having Alabama behind Oklahoma and Notre Dame ahead of Miami.

All four teams have identical records at 8-2. Miami beat Notre Dame and Oklahoma beat Alabama. Harris highlighted the Fighting Irish as winners in the latest ranking because the committee favored them over Alabama and Miami.

“I mean, they’re one win, they’re one credible win right now, in my opinion, it’s not Pitt, it’s USC,” Harris said. “USC is a good team, but they’re still on the outside looking in. And if I have to assess the committee and their decisions, we did see that head-to-head matchups actually do matter. Now, a week ago, everybody was complaining, how is Notre Dame ranked ahead of Miami? Miami’s got their own problems, but at the end of the day, the result of the Oklahoma-Alabama game showed us head-to-head matchups matter. Yet Notre Dame is still ranked ahead of Miami. And they really only have one quality win. They lost to Miami. They lost to Texas A&M. The two legit teams on their schedule that they’ve played so far this season, they handed them L’s. So Notre Dame, by the skin of their teeth and by the luck of the Irish, they are at number nine.”

All four of these teams will have to win out to make the playoff.