Damien Harris says Notre Dame ‘deserved’ CFP spot over Alabama
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
The omission of Notre Dame from the College Football Playoff was the talk of the sport on Sunday afternoon.
Instead, it was Miami getting into the field. The Hurricanes and Fighting Irish had identical 10-2 records, with the Canes beating the Irish in Week One. But despite the Irish being ranked ahead of the Canes in previous weeks, the Canes got in.
CBS Sports college football analyst Damien Harris agreed that the Irish should have made the Playoff. But the Alabama great argued that it should have been at the expense of his alma mater.
“I thought they deserved that spot more than Alabama. I’m going to get ridiculed all over social media,” Harris said on Sunday.
Despite the Crimson Tide’s 10-2 mark going into the SEC Championship Game, many of their wins “haven’t been convincing enough,” Harris added. A 28-7 loss to Georgia on Tuesday in Atlanta that saw the Tide rush for -3 yards should have sealed the team’s fate, in his eyes.
“I’ll go back to that Oklahoma game. And then you look at LSU. I wasn’t impressed then. We weren’t impressed after Auburn, damn sure weren’t impressed after what we saw last night, and there was just no movement,” he said.
Back to the Irish, who started the season 0-2. Harris, though, pointed out that their second loss was to Texas A&M. The Aggies were among the top-ranked teams in the country most of the year. Miami’s losses were to Louisville and SMU.
“Looking at what Notre Dame has done, they had the two best losses in all of college football, and they passed the eye test as one of the 12 best teams in the country, if you ask me,” Harris said.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
