College Football Playoff: Here are the 4 biggest snubs, starting with Notre Dame

The College Football Playoff bracket is out. So are some worthy teams that were pounding on the door to get in.

Yahoo Sports is breaking down the top teams that got snubbed from this year’s 12-team field.

Note: “Strength of record,” or “SOR,” and “strength of schedule,” or “SOS,” rankings are pulled from ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI), which says a SOR ranking reflects the chance that an average top-25 team would have team’s record or better, given the schedule, and that SOS is the rank among all FBS teams’ schedule strength from the perspective of an average top-25 team.

The CFP selection committee uses its own strength of record metric, but those rankings aren’t public.

Notre Dame (10-2)Strength of Record: 13 | Strength of Schedule: 44 | Record vs. Ranked Opponents: 2-2

Notre Dame lost its first two games and then went 10-0 the rest of the way. Those two losses came against Miami and Texas A&M, both of which were ranked No. 16 or higher when playing the Fighting Irish. Those games were decided by a combined four points.

Since, Notre Dame has crushed its competition. The Irish have posted an average margin of victory of 29.7 points per game during their win streak. They racked up as many style points as they could against a schedule that ended up pretty favorable. During this surge, they’ve played only two ranked opponents, then-No. 20 USC and then-No. 22 Pitt.

Still, it’s hard to deny how awesome Notre Dame’s been most of this season. The Irish are top five in scoring offense (42 points per game) and top 15 in scoring defense (17.6 points per game allowed) nationally. Running back Jeremiyah Love is averaging 6.9 yards per carry. Cornerback Leonard Moore has five picks. Defensive lineman Boubacar Traore has 7.5 sacks.

Leading up to Sunday, the conversation centered around Notre Dame and Miami. While the Hurricanes had the head-to-head advantage and more ranked wins, it seemed like the Irish had the look of a CFP team, at least as far as the eye test is concerned. That was not the case when the bracket was revealed.

Texas (9-3, 6-2 SEC)Strength of Record: 12 | Strength of Schedule: 8 | Record vs. Ranked Opponents: 3-2

Arch Manning rode a roller coaster with peaks and valleys the size of the state he plays in. He started the season with glaring technique issues and ended it with some of the most intriguing tape in the sport. His Longhorns experienced comparable highs and lows, beating three top-10 teams but also losing three games, by the far the most damning of which was an Oct. 4 setback to a Florida team that fired its head coach two weeks later and finished with four wins.

But Texas is much better now than it was then and than it was when it was the top-ranked team in the AP preseason poll facing Ohio State Week 1. Granted the Longhorns needed overtime to top Kentucky and Mississippi State, but they closed the regular season by winning six of their final seven games, including their finale against then-No. 3 Texas A&M.

Over the past five outings, Texas has averaged 33.6 points, 301.4 passing yards and 102 rushing yards. Regarding Manning, he’s totaled 17 touchdowns and thrown only two picks since the start of Week 7.

Vanderbilt (10-2, 6-2 SEC)Strength of Record: 11 | Strength of Schedule: 24 | Record vs. Ranked Opponents: 4-2

Vanderbilt turned heads during the 2024 season. It raised eyebrows during the 2025 season. The Commodores’ six SEC victories this year were their most in single-season program history, and as many as they had tallied in the previous six seasons combined.

Diego Pavia is the Energizer Bunny in cleats and a Heisman Trophy hopeful oozing moxie. The dual-threat quarterback has helped Clark Lea change Vandy’s football culture.

Unfortunately for the Commodores, their four ranked victories weren’t enough to get them into the field as a two-loss team. That’s because those wins have depreciated in value. In fact, now the Commodores don’t own one over a team in the current CFP rankings, and their strength of strength schedule ranking sits at 24th nationally and just 13th out of 16 SEC teams this season, per ESPN’s FPI.

In hindsight, Vandy could have used a better non-conference victory, and it reportedly looked into playing a 13th game in Hawaii or Alaska to bolster its CFP résumé. However, that last-ditch effort didn’t come to fruition.

BYU (11-2, 8-1 Big 12)Strength of Record: 9 | Strength of Schedule: 22 | Record vs. Ranked Opponents: 1-2

BYU dropped two games, both to Big 12 champion Texas Tech. There’s no shame in losing to a Red Raiders team that’s built on a roster reportedly worth at least $25 million, around at least $5 million more than Ohio State’s 2024 national championship roster cost.

That said, the Cougars failed to make it close. They first lost to Texas Tech 29-7 on Nov. 8 and then again Saturday in the conference title game 34-7.

It doesn’t help that BYU has only one ranked win to its name this season. That was a big one, though. The Cougars rallied to beat Holy War rival and No. 15 Utah on Oct. 18, as part of their 8-0 start to the season that saw them rank as high as No. 7 in the CFP rankings.

Behind true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who’s totaled 25 touchdowns, and running back LJ Martin, who wrapped the regular season as the Big 12’s leading rusher, BYU escaped scares and delivered three straight double-digit victories to end its 12-game slate. The Cougars improved across the board from last season when they went 10-2 and clocked out No. 17 in the CFP rankings. That upgrade didn’t cut it.

College Football Playoff: Here are the 4 biggest snubs, starting with Notre Dame

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