Kirk Herbstreit Rips 'Misleading' CFP Rankings Shows After Miami Edges Out Notre Dame

Kirk Herbstreit is ready to do away with the weekly College Football Playoff ranking shows.

On Sunday, after the CFP committee December 7, 2025 and snubbed Notre Dame in favor of Miami, Herbstreit attempted to explain the decision before then offering a solution.

Herbstreit’s explanation followed that of committee chair Hunter Yurachek. He claimed that once BYU dropped following a loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship, Miami and Notre Dame were next to each other. Once that was the case, the Hurricanes’ head-to-head win over the Irish vaulted them into the field and dropped Notre Dame out.

Then Herbstreit made a smart point. The rankings don’t really matter until the entire season is finished. Once every team’s full body of work has been submitted, the committee evaluates it. It genuinely doesn’t matter how the team was viewed the week before. The obvious conclusion is that revealed its final bracket.

Herbstreit is right, of course. The weekly rankings shows are made to create drama every few days and get us all talking about and obsessing over them. It’s just a PR move for college football. But those rankings are meaningless until everyone finishes their seasons.

The weekly shows are, frankly, silly and have no bearing on the final rankings. The smart move would be to end them. That won’t happen because of television ratings and the need for fodder on daily debate shows, but it should.

College Football Playoff bracket

The final bracket is now in place and there were few surprises other than Notre Dame’s snub.

Indiana earned the No. 1 overall seed after defeating Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game. Ohio State is the No. 2 seed, while SEC champion Georgia is No. 3 and Big 12 champ Texas Tech is No. 4. All four of those teams earned byes into the quarterfinals.

Fifth-seeded Oregon will host 12th-seeded James Madison at Autzen Stadium on December 20, with the winner meeting Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl on January 1.

Sixth-seeded Ole Miss will host No. 11 Tulane in Oxford on December 20, and the winner will battle Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on January 1.

Texas A&M finished No. 7 and will host No. 10 Miami in College Station on December 20. The winner will face Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on December 31.

Oklahoma earned the No. 8 seed and will face No. 9 Alabama in Norman on December 19. The winner will face Indiana in the Rose Bowl on January 1.

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