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The first College Football Playoff Rankings are out and two-loss Notre Dame is in prime position at No. 10, eight spots higher than Miami, a team the Fighting Irish lost to in the season opener. Much of Tuesday night's post-poll reaction centered on the selection committee's positive view of Notre Dame despite only one win over a ranked opponent, but a deeper dive is needed. For starters, head-to-head results only come into play "when circumstances at the margins indicate that teams are comparable. That's verbatim from selection committee protocol. That 13-member panel made it clear Miami and Notre Dame as two-loss teams are not equal when considering the full body of work. There's some subjective recency bias tossed in there when you look at the Hurricanes' losses coming over their last three games, but the point remains -- Notre Dame's edge in strength of record (15th) and strength of schedule (23rd) are two factors with heavy significance. Notre Dame's currently two spots higher than Miami in the Massey Ratings and four spots higher in Jeff Sagarin's algorithm. The only noticeable deviation in favor of the Hurricanes is Miami's spot at No. 7 in game control vs. 10th for Notre Dame. College Football Playoff Rankings reaction: Red River rivals Texas, Oklahoma sit in prime spoiler territory Shehan Jeyarajah Prior to the first reveal, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said his team's ranking was meaningless. "I'm going to use Saturday's opportunity to motivate us, that's what matters," Freeman said. "Me using (our playoff ranking), I believe, is wasted time. If I sit in my office to try and utilize our rankings as motivation, I'm wasting time that I need to be using to prepare for this upcoming game." That mission-based mentality is partly why Notre Dame has overcome a situation that looked extremely bleak after an 0-2 start. Things shifted considerably following last month's win over USC -- a virtual postseason elimination game for Freeman's team. The Fighting Irish have an opportunity to finish the regular season on a 10-game winning streak, a similar setup that benefited Notre Dame in last season's run to the playoff. Selection committee chair Mack Rhoades was asked about the eye test on Tuesday night concerning Notre Dame. "I think we refer to it as art and science," Rhoades said. "I think the art is watching the team on film and tape and how good they are, how physical they are up front, offensive line, defensive line play, how good are they up the middle, their quarterback play, their skill players, and then certainly contemplating and looking at metrics. "I know you know this, but not any one metric weighted heavier than the other. We use them all at our disposal to try to get the very best answer, and I think that's where the public misses out a little bit. Just the beauty in this is the actual debate and discussion and conversation in the room when we're talking about all of those metrics." While "eye test" is not an official metric, there's undoubted confirmation here that what the selection committee sees matters. A turning point in Notre Dame's season was the 56-13 win at Arkansas that sent Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman packing after the Fighting Irish scored 42 first-half points. Quarterback CJ Carr had his only four-touchdown outing of the season and Notre Dame finally got Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price going in the run game. Since that road win, Notre Dame's defense has drastically improved. A 36-7 victory over NC State last month is part of the season the Fighting Irish were ranked higher than any ACC team on Tuesday night, especially one-loss Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets gave up nearly 600 yards of total offense against the Wolfpack over the weekend while NC State was playing without tailback Hollywood Smothers, who has 825 yards rushing on the season. Notre Dame's look-in-mirror moment The Fighting Irish are a fourth-down stop against No. 3 Texas A&M away from having a win over the SEC's lone remaining unbeaten. That 41-40 loss to the Aggies was the closest game Mike Elko's squad has played this season and they needed a 13-play, 74-yard touchdown drive in the final moments to prevail in South Bend. "How do we evaluate what we're doing, why things are and aren't working and how do we attack them and get better? So we're 0-2, lost to two good opponents," Freeman said after that loss. "We're guaranteed 12 (games), that's what we always say." There was no finger pointing after giving up 24 first downs and 488 total yards to the Aggies for Notre Dame, but it was an introspective opportunity to figure out what was going wrong on defense despite notable talent and returning veterans. Notre Dame has handled its business in impressive fashion since that winless start and the selection committee has taken note. As of now at No. 10, Notre Dame gets the "last team in" designation since the Nos. 11 and 12 spots -- if the season ended today -- would go to the ACC and Group of Six champions. For Miami, even a 10-2 finish is not going to be enough to get in the 12-team bracket unless mass chaos ensues down the stretch within the ACC and elsewhere. "I think for Miami, I'm just going to say it -- for Miami, it's about consistency and their lack of consistency," Rhoades said. "We just need to see more consistency out of Miami headed down the stretch."
