Miami’s Mario Cristobal relieved by CFP berth, but knows process isn’t perfect
CORAL GABLES Fla AP Mario Cristobal spent four seasons working under Nick Saban at Alabama and learned countless lessons various of which stand out more than others And when thinking about the College Football Playoff one of Saban s quotes from Cristobal s time as an assistant with him stood out If you want to make everybody happy don t coach and get involved in football Go sell ice cream because the ice cream man makes everybody happy ' Cristobal stated recalling the Saban line In football not everybody s going to be happy A year ago at - and snubbed by the CFP committee Miami wasn t happy This year at - and headed to Texas A M for a playoff contest the Hurricanes are thrilled It ultimately came down to an either-or pick for the last at-large spot Miami or Notre Dame and the committee had no choice but to ultimately recognize the Hurricanes - season-opening win over the Fighting Irish With that Miami went to the playoff Notre Dame s season ended it passed on bowl invites telling fans it would turn its focus toward winning a national title in And yes the Hurricanes and Irish are scheduled to play at Notre Dame next November Notre Dame s a great football gang Cristobal mentioned Processes like this all processes need to be assessed again and remedied wherever they can but I think everybody s working at it Last year we were excluded and we weren t very happy It s a tough business man It s a really really tough business I respect everybody and everyone involved in it The CFP selection committee was petitioned to re-watch the Notre Dame-Miami contest in latest days and committee chair Hunter Yurachek mentioned things stood out There was observation from the coaches in the room where Notre Dame did a lot of chasing of a few of the athletic receivers especially on the Miami side and it just felt like there was a little bit more athleticism on the side of Miami versus Notre Dame Yurachek commented Then the fact that Miami s defense really stifled Notre Dame s running battle like nobody else did the entire season Tweaks to the process are surely coming Miami wound up losing a five-way tiebreaker for a berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference title challenge and the rules that the league operates under have been under chosen fire since If that tiebreaker went Miami s way it s entirely viable that the Hurricanes would have played their way in or out and Notre Dame would have had a playoff spot either way Also befuddling to a great number of How Notre Dame could be ahead of Miami in every CFP ranking but fall behind the Hurricanes at the end after a weekend where neither club played In short the CFP committee explained its prisms became different when looking solely at those two clubs for one spot and not as part of a larger group That makes several sense yet it s still easy to see why those on the wrong end of the decision could find it somewhere between confusing and flat-out wrong It s a hard job Cristobal explained It s a tough industry right I mean where else are so a multitude of variables so influential in the outcome of a tournament that could send teams in a death spiral or propel others to new heights And you have human error and you have officiating and you have injuries and all that stuff There s so much that goes into the competition of football that when you also add a committee to make decisions it s hard on everybody Had the CFP not come calling Miami ostensibly would have been settling for a berth in the Gator Bowl For various players who ll look at the NFL draft the bowl allegedly would have been one to skip and that would have conceivably meant the end of the college careers for players like Carson Beck Rueben Bain Jr Akheem Mesidor CJ Daniels and more That s not a new concept for college football bowl games are often very watered-down right now when teams miss the CFP I know one thing The passion behind college football is at an all-time high Cristobal noted And the part I m greater part happy about in terms of the process is that we didn t compromise winning on the field Because with all the chaos in college football right now all the uncertainty college football has been hurled into a different galaxy Coaches are taking jobs but they have to fly back to be able to coach their teams for the current job With all this going on I m glad that we didn t punish the pupil athletes who truly laid it on the line on the field Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top throughout the season Sign up here and here AP News mobile app AP college football https apnews com hub ap-top- -college-football-poll and https apnews com hub college-football Source
