College Football Live - CFB Live- CFP Rankings Reaction

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Samuel Acho, Roddy Jones, and Heather Dinich as they digest Sunday's CFP bracket reveal! Does Notre Dame have a right to be so upset? Is the relationship between them and the ACC "permanently damaged"? Should the Committee have dropped Alabama after a 3-score loss in the SEC Championship? The crew has lots to say! And the Heisman Finalists are official, who do the guys think will bring it home from New York? And what do the guys expect to see from new Penn State Coach Matt Campbell? All this and more on today's episode of CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I've been ready. And with that, we welcome you inside college football. And with that, we welcome you inside college football. football live, Heather Roddy, Sam Zubin here with you. In the two days since the bracket has come out, the only two words anybody seems to be talking about are permanently damaged. Those were the words used by Notre Dame Athletic Director,

Pete Bavakwa, about his team being left out of this bracket. The teams you do see there, we will discuss in detail. Yes, you see two G5 teams, we'll discuss it. Yes, you do see Miami, we'll discuss it. And yes, you see Alabama, we will discuss it all. But here's the thing. starting with Notre Dame. They have gone out of their way, Bavacqua, the AD.

He doesn't blame Miami. They have to politic just the way the Irish did. But he does blame the CFP selection process, the ACC, of which they're a partial member, and Commissioner Jim Phillips. And he's been on the war path lately. You ask anybody in college football, we're one of the best teams in the country.

We're one of those handful of teams that could absolutely win the national championship this year. And then standing up here today, knowing that we have 0% chance of proving that on the field is a bitter pill to swallow. With these weekly shows and weekly rankings, very strong signals are being sent. Okay, Notre Dame, in the first ranking, you are 10th at 6 and 2. Well, we did nothing from that point until last Sunday, but to prove to the world that we've gotten better each week, progressed each week, have.

the best player in the country on our team in Jeremiah Love. We've done everything from that point, not even to put into question whether we should stay at 10 or get better. To me, all the empirical data in the world suggests we should get better. That first week of the CFP rankings, if we were 17th or 16th or 19th behind Miami, we know where we are. It's going to be an uphill climb. This is going to be tough, right? I don't know if we can get in. Let's start thinking about what's next. Let's keep winning. Let's keep doing, you know. Let's, let's, but at least we know where we stand. That's why we felt like we had the rug pull from underneath us. We thought we knew where we stood, week in and week out. And then, oh, by the way, here we go.

Here's the selection show. You know, just kidding. You can hear it in the tone of his voice. Now, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips had this to say about some of Bavocca's comments. Quote, the University of Notre Dame is an incredibly be valued member of the ACC, and there's tremendous respect and appreciation for the entire institution. With that said, when it comes to football, we have a responsibility to support and advocate for all 17 of our football playing member institutions, and I stand behind our conference efforts to do just that leading up to the college football playoff committee selections on Sunday. At no time was it suggested by the ACC that Notre Dame was not a worthy candidate

for inclusion to the field. Let me give you the chat GPT translation of that. Notre Dame is very upset that it seemed like the ACC was politicking hard, very hard for Miami and not really buffering up Notre Dame. And that's why Phillips responded the way he did. Roddy, let's start with you here. We have had a full three days to discuss all the bluster. You heard from Phillips. You heard from Bavacqua. You heard Notre Dame's not going to participate in a bowl game. What do you make of all of this as college football now faces an even more uncertain future moving forward. Well, I don't blame Pete Bovacqua or any of Notre Dame fans for feeling the way they felt because of the way the system was set up with the weekly rankings. I agree. They were sent

the wrong signals. And that's the thing that the ACC was yelling the entire time. This should have mattered before the final rankings, but it didn't. And I think the feelings are really raw right now. You know, Pete Bovacua saying that the relationship with the ACC has been damaged. not forget back in 2020 when Notre Dame was going to be left out in the cold the ACC let Notre Dame join as a full football member that year they played for the ACC championship game they had the ACC coach of the year and Brian Kelly so when Notre Dame needed a hand the ACC was there to lend it to him I think the feelings are raw right now I would imagine the relationship between Notre Dame and the ACC is going

to be fine the thing is though this should never have been a Notre Dame versus Miami conversation if you look at the Venn diagram of best teams as seen by FPI and SP Plus, Miami and Notre Dame are better than Alabama. If you look at the side of the most deserving, Alabama's resume stands out. Miami has the head to head over Notre Dame. Miami is in both of those things. They are at the intersection of that then diagram. So the debate should have been between Notre Dame and Alabama.

And to me, Sam, Alabama should have been left out. But because you had the rate where you did before the SEC championship game, it would have seemed like you were punishing them for playing poorly in the championship game if you did indeed leave them out? Yeah, I don't agree with the last statement you made about leaving Alabama out compared to Notre Dame, because if you look at Alabama, yes, you could talk about Miami and Notre Dame having a lot of the similar strength of schedules, but Alabama's was way ahead when it comes to strength of schedule. Look at the teams that Alabama played.

Specifically, they played Georgia, the best win in college football, how to run where they beat Tennessee and Vanderbilt. The list goes on and on, right? Whereas what did Notre Dame do? Notre Dame had two opportunities at the beginning of the season to prove that they were one of the best teams. They lost to Miami, and they lost A&M. And all of a sudden, when Miami and Notre Dame are next to each other, both teams are 10 and 2. Both teams have a similar strength of schedule. Both teams have a similar strength of record.

Both teams have played similar opponents. Now, of a sudden, it's like, man, what do we do? How do we figure out which teams should get and which team is? Oh, both teams played each other, and one team won, one team didn't. And so Notre Dame shouldn't have an issue with Miami being put ahead of them, at least when it comes to, okay, the final teams, who should be the final teams? I understand the frustration when you're seeing. yourself higher up in the standings, but we also have to look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is this, just because you are good in getting better, doesn't mean that

other teams can get better as well. That's an issue that Texas was saying. Texas was like, man, we're one of the best teams. Okay, well, Texas, you're going to take out Miami? Miami played forward and beat Miami. You're going to take out Alabama? You're going to take out Notre Dame? So, yes, I understand Notre Dame's frustration from seeing the early season rankings, but when

you boil down to it and say, okay, if we're looking at between us and Miami, we're very, very similar, Miami wins. Between us and Alabama, man, they've played a much tougher schedule, so that's why Alabama got the nod. I don't disagree with the Alabama getting the tougher schedule. I mean, strength of schedule, strength of record, they stand out. But we're consistently told that it is the best teams. We are ranking the 12 best teams in the country,

or the 10 best teams in the country. The metrics that measure best and the ones that we use the most, SP Plus, Miami and Notre Dame are top 10 SP Plus teams. Miami's sitting there at 13. FPI. Alabama is lower than both Miami and Notre Dame, and you look at the way that they're playing Miami. I mean, Alabama's been leaking oil the last month. So if we were putting the best teams in, it would be Notre Dame and Miami. Well, the issue I have with that statement is that you could make the same argument about leaking oil, at least offensively, about Oklahoma. Oklahoma is another team that has struggled offensively over the last four to five weeks. Yet their defense has been solid. But because they played on the field, they beat Alabama, because they played on the field and got a chance. to win when it mattered the most against stiff competition later in the season, they prove that they belong.

And so, yes, the metrics stay with Notre Dame beating who they beat, like Syracuse or the backup quarterback put up 70 points. Yeah, those metrics look good, but also look who you're playing. Fair enough. Before we get into Notre Dame opting out of a bowl game and the ramifications of that. Heather, I want to come to you right before the program, I heard you say, as we were just chatting to take the viewers behind the curtain a little bit, this was the most unpredictable final Sunday you've ever.

recovered and you've been on this since the playoff began in 2014. Can you take us inside that a little bit because you've got access that only many people at home and the three guys you're sitting with you would love to have. Sure. And the reason I said that was because historically speaking, how you play in conference championship games has always mattered. I said that every day in the week leading up to it because the committee is upstairs from where I'm sitting watching. And the fact that how Alabama played in that SEC championship game did not impact them stunned me. And I thought that they would still be in because they beat Georgia during the regular season, but I thought they would at least drop.

That's why if you saw the meme, I could not believe that Alabama didn't drop. Because that impacted everything else. Because Bama didn't drop, there was no buffer between Notre Dame and Miami that had been there all season long. And what you saw unfold is what I would have predicted with an Alabama win. Fascinating, fascinating. All right. So now let's spin this forward, Roddy. I want to talk to you about Notre Dame opting out of their bowl game.

They're not the only team to do it. Iowa State and Kansas State are as well. They've both been fined a half a million dollars. But those programs are also going through coaching changes, and they're also not named Notre Dame. Let's just be real. So take us through your thought on the Irish opting out of a bowl game with BYU, essentially putting an end, an abrupt end, to a season that they feel could have ended with a national title. I felt like it was petty.

It was childish. It was a bit of a corporate temper tantrum, if you will. And I think of two groups of people in this scenario. One is the seniors who thought they, who are not going to play in the NFL, who didn't know they were playing in the last game ever in Pac-12 or ACC after dark against Stanford. They thought there was postseason, whether it was CFP, which they probably thought, because all the signals that the committee was sending would have said CFP. Or it could have been a ball game. Those seniors just had the rug pulled out from under them by not being able to put on the Golden Dome another time. And think about young Notre Dame fans.

I'm not saying that sports need to be our moral compass for everything, but a young Notre Dame fan who's trying to figure out, all right, what do I do when adversity hits me, he sees his coach, his athletic director, and his school that he's beloved, not have something go their way, and they just pick up their ball and left? They just quit.

And so what happens if they don't make the varsity? You just going to quit? What happens if something doesn't go your way, the example that's being said, I really don't like? And I know that's not what our athletics are supposed to be anymore. I guess that curtain's been pulled back from that. But it's still, Notre Dame sees itself as higher than all that stuff, sees itself as one of the moral beacons, and they were not that in this case. Yep, two really quick points.

One, Bovac and his press conference today talked about how they give so much power to the players in terms of decisions like this. And that really played a role in it. The players had a big influence of that decision. And the second thing is, to your point, Roddy, do you remember when Florida State was snubbed from the college football playoff? Do you know what they did? They went and they played in that bowl game with a completely depleted roster. And in retrospect, I got to give them props for that. I actually disagree with you, Heather, for the first time, maybe in my life.

I'll go back to that Florida State game. I thought you were going one way. The point that I make is Georgia, so Georgia was had a 29, in 2023, Georgia had a 29 game winning streak going into the SEC game. And they went and they lost Alabama in the SEC championship game. They got left out of the playoff, as did Florida State. They didn't lose in their championship game, but they got left out of the playoff. Florida State decided essentially not to show up to the game. A lot of people opted out.

Georgia showed up to that game. They won 63 to 3. Since then, Florida State's record is 7 and 17. Since then, Georgia's record, I believe, is 23 and 4. Georgia's currently sitting right now at a top 14 with a biweek. They played in the college football playoff last year. Florida State is still trying to figure their things out. So what I think this does, actually that's Dexterity.

instrumental to Notre Dame is it starts to believe that this external locus of control. All of a sudden, you start placing blame as opposed to taking control of what you can control. I don't know what it's going to look like moving forward, but I do know that when Georgia decided to show up, despite it not being in their favor, they've been dominant ever since. In Florida State, a team that decided to opt out those players, it's been a little bit murky. So initially I was like, oh, I see the pettiness, but man, I think long term to Roddy's point of what will these players learn. and it may not be the best lessons moving forward. No, and Florida State hasn't, their struggles are not because of that game.

Their struggles are because they whiffed in the portal multiple times, particularly at the quarterback position. That wasn't caused by Georgia. That was caused by Mike Norvell and his staff. And in terms of the players, what Heather said, I love a player-led program. But to give the players that much say in whether or not you play in a ball game, you are giving the people whose frontal lobe literally is not fully developed yet.

guys are not 25 when the frontal lobe is developed. So they are more emotional. They are more rash. You can't let the players decide this. The adults in the room need to step up and say it is right to play in the bowl game and finish what we started. Okay. Last word goes to of all teams, another team that's got a bit of a gold palette.

And that would be Vanderbilt, who finished with the same record as Notre Dame 10 and 2. And what did Clark Lisa yesterday? I don't know about them, but our guys love playing football. We can't wait to see Iowa in our bowl game. A little bit of a zinger. All right. So Heather, I want to go to you here because moving forward, there are some protections here in place for the Irish if the playoff were to remain 12 teams or even advanced to 14 that would help Notre Dame avoid a situation like what happened on Sunday. Can you take us inside that?

Sure, that's right, Zubin. When ESPN and the college football playoff agreed to the six-year deal that will begin in 2026, there are protections for Notre Dame that guarantee the Irish a spot in the college. football playoff if they are ranked in the top 12 or in the top 14 if that's what the model is. So this won't happen again if that's the case. But there are also guarantees for the four power four conference champions. So in theory, if it was next year, Duke would have been in the college football playoff. But we're all going to go ahead and assume the ACC fixes its tiebreaker situation by then. And we're going to have a different conversation.

And I do feel some kind of way about hearing that Notre Dame gets protections of being in the top 12. And the reason that I feel that kind of way is I go and look at Notre Dame schedule for next year. Remember this year they started off with A&M and Miami. And yes, they do play Miami next year, but next year they start off with Wisconsin and Rice. And so all of a sudden you could pretty much slate out an easy schedule for Notre Dame and have these protections, not be battle tested, ease your way into the playoff, and then maybe you win in the playoff or maybe you lose. So that rest me some kind of way.

The Notre Dame temper tantra makes more sense. They're used to getting what they want, and they'll essentially be treated like a conference champion going forward, which was the big thing that they weren't treated as before this. So, yeah, it makes more sense now. Fair enough. Last word. This current format, just a reminder to the Irish,

was put together by the CFB Commissioners and Notre Dame. Sometimes you've got to live with the results. Just a quick reminder here. It's V week at ESPN. and when we highlight the urgent need for cancer research. And remember, every single cent of your donations go directly to cancer research. On the way, the Matt Campbell era is underway at Penn State.

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And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at go-transit.com slash tickets. We're back on college football live. Say hello to Penn State's new football coach. From this day forward, we're going to wake up every single day in this football program. And we're going to build championship habits. And we're going to do it one day at a time. And we're going to do it from the ground up.

And we're going to do it in a football program that's going to demand toughness, mental and physical toughness, demand discipline, at every corner and demand most importantly togetherness. One team, one program, unified to continue the great pride and the great tradition of Penn State football. That is Matt Campbell. That is Sam and Roddy. Sam, I want to start with you here. Matt Campbell was 72 and 55 at Iowa State, one of the toughest jobs in America. Upon leaving his athletic director on Friday night, said, After 10 years, this guy deserves a statue in front of Jack Tri-Stadium in Ames. But the expectation in the build are a lot different.

But bottom line, this guy is a builder. You say he should be able to win anywhere, anytime using his methods. Oh, without a doubt. Matt Campbell's a three-time Big 12 coach of the year. He's been at the program at Iowa State for a decade. It's had ample opportunities to leave to different college programs or the NFL. But he has a sense of loyalty. And all of a sudden, when this opportunity came up after being at a place for a decade,

building a program, Penn State decided to wait for 50 plus days to build, to find a coach. And they found their guy. And I believe they found the right guy. People have questions about the 2026 season for Penn State. Penn State didn't hire Matt Campbell for 2026 alone. They hired him for the next 26 years. That's what they're trying to build. There's been four full-time coaches in the last 75 years of Penn State since 1950.

They're not trying to get it quickly. They're trying to get it right. And I think Matt Campbell is the right decision. Yeah, it's going to. be interesting, Sam. I think Matt Campbell is a great football coach, but this is a different beast than what he had at Iowa State. And he's going to be graded differently based on his results. You know, there were multiple times at Iowa State where they had really good teams were picked to win or to compete for the Big 12 championship game. They didn't do it. And Penn State

has to be a team that recruits well and develops well. Only one ESPN30 commit in this 2026 class, which is essentially a lost class for Penn State with most of their commits or a lot of their commits ending up at Virginia Tech. So Matt Campbell's going to have to recruit at a level that he hasn't in the past. And without this recruiting class, there's going to be a hole in that roster that he is going to have to fix in the transfer

portal. And that's not even counting all of the anticipated transfers that we are looking to see if it happens or not the guys going from Penn State to Virginia Tech to follow a guy that a lot of the players loved in James Franklin. Yeah, Roddy. You said that Matt Campbell is going to have to recruit well

and develop well. Those are things that he does, extremely well. Matt Campbell is a developer of people, especially when it comes to Iowa saying, I got a chance to talk to him at Big 12 Media Day about four years ago when I first started at ESPN. And he was one of the first people complaining, kind of like Nick Saban, about all these transfers and how not even just transfers, he's like, man, even coaches, they don't want to develop players anymore. That's what he cares about. That's what I, as he was speaking, cares about. So that's one. And the number two, if we can quickly show up Penn State schedule for next year. You're talking about being graded on a curve, graded in a different level. Well, Penn State has a relatively

easy opportunity next year. Look at the first three games, Marshall, Buffalo, Minnesota, right? You got Purdue, Ruckers, right? These are some of the home games. Yes, you have Michigan, but I don't see Ohio State on there. I don't see Oregon on there. And so I think this season coming up for Penn State is a great opportunity springing board for Matt Campbell because the schedule keeps some of the tougher opponents off there for this year.

Yep, keep in mind their recruiting class last week was sitting below. Go ahead. Rod, you got something? You better not lose. You better not lose. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, fair enough. I would just say one thing.

Last week, National Signing Day, we showed the one commit. Their signing class last week, Penn State, was below South Dakota State of the FCS. Coach, better not lose. On the way, I think it's pretty clear to most who's going to win the Heisman. But one of our guys thinks the most impactful player in all of college football is going to finish second, third, or even fourth. Who's that guy? I'll tell you. Next.

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Heismendoza, Jeremiah Love, Diego Pavia, whose impact on college football is going to be felt far after he leaves due to eligibility issues. and Ohio State's Julian San. I think there's a lot of straw polls out there that says it's going to be Heismendoza to win. But, Roddy, I want to start with you here. It's for the most outstanding player in college football. That's what the stiff arm says.

But you think the most impactful player in college football is someone else. Zuban, I think it's Jeremiah Love. And honestly, if you go to Most Outstanding, I think it's Jeremiah Love. He has split carries all year with Judarian Price. which affected his stats. Obviously, we talked about the Miami game at nausea,

and they didn't really give him the ball in that game. So I think that was something that they would do if they could go back. But Jeremiah loves been the best player in the country, especially on offense all year long. If it is Fernando Mendoza or any of those other guys, they are deserving winners. My vote, if I was a voter,

would have gone to Jeremiah Love them. Any of those other guys? No, Fernando Mendoza is the only player on that list that, in my opinion, has had multiple Heisman moments. Oregon game late in that game after interception Heisman moment Penn State game without his best receiver Heisman moment big 10 championship a few times in that game right third and third and short deep all over the top

Heisman moment so if Fernando Mendoza doesn't win I think that would be a farce The only thing is he worked himself into those Heisman moments by throwing a pick six and not playing particularly well against Penn State that's all saying Fair enough splitting throws with anybody Fair enough that'll have to do it for today We're back tomorrow with college football live at 2 Eastern

and a full 30 minutes of playoff discussion on championship drive. We'll see it. Talk about stepping up. It's time to level up your game. Introducing the all new ESPN app. All of ESPN, all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments. The electricity is palpable.

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