The stage is set for the College Football Playoff — and someone has some explaining to do.

Shortly after ESPN announced the full bracket for the CFP on Sunday afternoon, selection committee chairman Hunter Yurachek joined the broadcast to justify a pair of controversial selections: Alabama in; Notre Dame out. 

Clumped together with Miami on the playoff bubble, the committee rolled with the Crimson Tide (10–3) as the ninth seed and swapped the Fighting Irish (10–2) for the Hurricanes (10–2) in the ten-spot at the last minute. 

Yurachek was asked by ESPN host Rece Davis to defend the selection of Alabama, which had just endured a 28–7 spanking from No. 3-ranked Georgia in the SEC championship game.

The one-sided affair marked the Crimson Tide’s third loss of the season, becoming the only program in playoff consideration with more than two defeats. 

Yurachek explained that while the committee did factor conference championship results into its selection criteria, he asserted that Alabama’s “body of work” in its first 12 games was simply too impressive to ignore. 

The Crimson Tide endured the strongest schedule in the top 11, Yurachek said, which included statement wins over Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and even a road win over the Bulldogs, which the committee chairman described as arguably the best win of any team all season.

“In spite of their performance yesterday in the conference championship,” Yurachek said, “they deserved to stay in that nine-spot.”

And then there were two.

Notre Dame had been ranked higher than Miami all season long — and neither squad played over the weekend to potentially sway the rankings. 

Yet somehow, their rankings flipped on selection day. Why?

Asked what could have vaulted the Hurricanes over the Fighting Irish, Yurachek drew from BYU’s 34–7 loss in the Big 12 championship against Texas Tech — a second defeat to the Red Raiders that was “worthy of Miami moving ahead of them in the rankings,” he said. 

From there, with Miami and Notre Dame sitting respectively at No. 10 and No. 11, the selection committee traced back to their head-to-head matchup in the season opener, where the Hurricanes edged a narrow 27–24 victory.

“Once we moved Miami ahead of BYU, then we had that side-by-side comparison that everybody had been hungry for, Notre Dame and Miami,” Yurachek said following the bracket’s release. “And when you look at those two teams on paper, and they are almost equal, on their schedule strength, common opponents, results against common opponents, but the one metric we had to fall back on was the head-to-head.”

Alabama and Miami become the final pair of at-large teams to clinch a spot in the 12-team CFP, headlined by undefeated Big Ten champion Indiana. 

Group of Five squads Tulane and James Madison round out the bracket. 

The Crimson Tide will take on No. 8 Oklahoma on the road Dec. 19, while the Hurricanes are set to face seventh-seeded Texas A&M at their house on Dec. 20.