Heather Dinich emphasizes early result of Notre Dame vs. Miami for College Football Playoff

On a loaded schedule of games for week one, Sunday might have one of the best ones of the entire weekend with Notre Dame vs. Miami. It might also, from the opening kickoff of their respective seasons, be one of the biggest when it comes to playoff implications by season’s end for the Fighting Irish and Hurricanes.

ESPN’s Heather Dinich previewed that matchup between Notre Dame and Miami on August 31st while on ‘Get Up’ on Thursday. She projected it to be an impactful game for each team as the result is likely to affect both of them as programs likely contending for one of the seven at-large spots for the College Football Playoff.

“Huge,” Dinich described this likely highly-rated matchup this morning. “You know, remember the selection committee’s tiebreakers include head-to-head results. And what happens in week one will resonate through selection day with this game. Why? Because both of these teams could be contending for one of those at-large bids.”

“Notre Dame, obviously, can’t win a conference title and earn a guaranteed spot as one of the five highest-ranked conference champions. Miami can if it wins the ACC. But, if it doesn’t, whoever wins this game is going to earn that early edge in the selection committee rankings,” said Dinich.

Notre Dame and Miami were each in contention to make the College Football Playoff a year ago. The Fighting Irish did get in as the highest-rated at-large as the No. 5 seed which went on to play for and finish as the runner-up the national championship while the Hurricanes were the second team out after a pair of losses in November cost them a spot out of the ACC by missing the ACC Championship in the end.

Now, the Fighting Irish and Hurricanes enter this season as two of the top teams for this upcoming season. They each made the Top-10 of the Coaches Poll, with Notre Dame at No. 5 and Miami at No. 10, to start this week and are each in the Top-15 in title odds per those at BetMGM.

However, one could immediately affect the other’s aspirations on August 31st. Starting at 0-1 would, considering how difficult the rest of their respective schedules are, make it a challenge for whoever the loser is to be in contention for a playoff spot as an at-large. If both are in consideration for at-large berths, though, as Dinich noted, whoever started at 1-0 would have an advantage that the other wouldn’t in the debates had by the selection committee amongst the team’s trying to make their case to be in.

Every team wants to get off to a good start, but also doesn’t want a bad one to affect their hopes for the postseason three months later. That’s all what’s going to be at stake for Notre Dame as well as Miami in their season opener against one another at Hard Rock Stadium going into Labor Day.