Social media reacts to Alabama jumping Notre Dame in the CFP rankings
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It wasn’t a great Tuesday night for Notre Dame football, as it found out that the College Football Playoff ranking committee had dropped them from No. 9 to No. 10.
The Irish moved down as Alabama jumped them, and they’ll have another game this weekend against Georgia to impress the committee. Notre Dame has finished its 2025 regular season schedule, and it’s not guaranteed that they’ll make the field of 12-teams.
There are more than a few factors that could make it a much longer offseason for the Irish. It’s not what Notre Dame wanted to see, and many took to social media to react to the news. Check out below some of the top reactions to the Irish dropping in the CFP.
College Football Playoff top-25
December 2️⃣ College Football Playoff Selection Committee Rankings#CFBPlayoff 🏈🏆 pic.twitter.com/6M4RcbbaV6
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 3, 2025
Let’s start off with where everyone is ranked inside the top-12 teams. Obviously a Group of 5 school will make it, and they’re not ranked in that range, so that’s one spot that’ll bump a currently much higher ranked team. It could be the Irish as that team, especially if BYU beats Texas Tech in the Big 12 Championship game. Then it could come down to….
Notre Dame vs. Miami
The committee put themselves in a lose-lose situation with ND & Miami.
If it’s Notre Dame ahead of Miami, they’ll deal with the head-to-head fallout.
Or if it’s Miami over ND, they have to explain why they flipped two teams on a bye after one has been ranked ahead for a month.
— Tyler Wojciak (@TylerWojciak) December 3, 2025
The committee is going to have to try and rationalize why they’re making these decisions, but it’s hard to understand why they moved up the Tide over Notre Dame. It’s not like the Irish looked bad against Stanford, and Alabama needed a late touchdown to beat an under .500 Auburn.
Alabama over Notre Dame just doesn’t make sense with this explanation
Alabama’s “great, gutsy 4th down call” to take the lead against 5-7 Auburn is what gave them the edge over Notre Dame.
They’re deliberately killing the sport to cater to one conference. pic.twitter.com/zeMbMmfjT3
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) December 3, 2025
So what if Notre Dame struggled against the Cardinal, and needed a late 4th down conversion to win the game? Do the Irish stay in their previous spots. It just doesn’t make much sense as to why Alabama jumped Notre Dame.
There there a guideline to what the CFP committee is doing?
In a reversal from Warde Manuel said last year, Yurachek says idle teams *can* move up or down on Sunday.
Rece follows up by asking whether Miami is not necessarily stuck behind ND.
“Following the championship games, we are going to re-rank the Top 25 and see where they fall.”
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 3, 2025
It’s really hard to understand how this committee will rank teams, as they’re seemingly just randomly changing their minds each week. It would be nice to have a concrete system, as it looks very disjointed right now.
Was this the plan all along for Alabama and the CFP?
Are you puzzled by the committee moving Alabama past Notre Dame like me?
See this tweet below from @LChaney_ that he posted on Tuesday morning. I think he’s spot on.
This makes more sense than the committee moving Alabama over ND for a win over a bad Auburn team. ⤵️ https://t.co/HY57fv54gB
— Mike Singer (@MikeTSinger) December 3, 2025
Clearly Chaney made his statement prior to the rankings being released, but he could see it coming. If the committee came out and said that this was the reason, many wouldn’t be happy with them. It seems like they’re dancing around the real answer why Alabama jumped Notre Dame.
If not Miami and Notre Dame then who?
CFP chair Hunter Yurachek: “We’re not comparing Notre Dame and Miami side-by-side.” Says the grouping has mostly been Alabama, Notre Dame, BYU and Miami, so that one H2H result is one of multiple factors at play.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 3, 2025
Personally, I think that Notre Dame has shown that they’re better than this “tier,” but the committee doesn’t. It’s hard for me to understand why they made this move now, and not in the previous weeks. Maybe it’s because…
The CFP is gerrymandering?
The ESPN show is totally blowing off the big story.
The College Football Playoff committee just gerrymandered its rankings by putting Notre Dame at 10 to assure five SEC teams are in the tournament.
— Pete Fiutak (@PeteFiutak) December 3, 2025
It sure looks like Fuitak has this one on the nose, as it does seem like the goal is to get five SEC teams into the field. It also looks like three Big Ten teams will make it in as well, giving those two conferences a total of eight bids. Is that justified? Hard to say.
The worst scenario for Notre Dame
These rankings spell it out:
As long as Alabama is competitive against Georgia Saturday & BYU upsets Texas Tech, Notre Dame does not make playoffs
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 3, 2025
Notre Dame will be big Georgia and Texas Tech fans this weekend, both of them winning will make the Irish rest a bit easier as they’ll await their fate on Sunday.
It might not be this straightforward for Notre Dame
so it’s pretty straightforward for ND:
– If BYU wins, ND is out.
– If TTU wins, ND is in.— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) December 3, 2025
As much as we’d like to think this is the case, it might not be. If BYU does win, and Alabama loses, do the Irish move into a more comfortable spot? The committee says they won’t penalize a team for losing this weekend, but if Georgia blows the Tide out, could that change their mind. I think there’s more than one way for Notre Dame to make the field.
Notre Dame’s resume vs. Alabama
Alabama just jumped Notre Dame.
Last 4 games against FBS opponents:
Notre Dame:
• Beat 9-2 Navy by 39
• Beat #22 Pitt by 22
• Beat 3-9 Syracuse by 63
• Beat 4-8 Stanford by 28Alabama:
• Beat 4-8 SC by 7
• Beat 7-5 LSU by 11
• Lost to OU at home
• Beat 5-7 Auburn by 7…— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) December 3, 2025
Just a quick recap of how each of these two teams have fared over the last month, and it’s pretty clear which team hasn’t struggled. Notre Dame has looked better on paper, and most likely the eye test as well. It’s just very disappointing to see Alabama take a late lead on the Irish in the CFP race.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Social media questioned Alabama ranked over Notre Dame in CFP
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