This is the last week we can really have the Notre Dame-Miami debate, so as the regular season ends, we might as well get straight to it one last time.

I view Miami and Notre Dame to be on the same tier, and Miami won their head-to-head matchup, so I put Miami ahead. That’s been the case all season, and it remains the case in this week’s edition of The Athletic 136. But my opinion is not based on only that result.

This is a rare situation where there are many common data points between the two teams to compare, so let’s do that. They both handled Pitt with ease, blew out NC State and made easy work of Syracuse and Stanford. Notre Dame’s best win is USC, while Miami’s is … Notre Dame. There is nothing within those results to indicate Notre Dame is clearly better than Miami.

Let’s also turn to the computers. In ESPN’s strength of record metric, Notre Dame is No. 13 and Miami is No. 14. (The College Football Playoff committee uses its own strength of record metric, the details of which are not made public.) In Sagarin ratings, Notre Dame is No. 2 and Miami is No. 6. ESPN’s Football Power Index has Notre Dame at No. 3 and Miami at No. 7. Their schedules are ranked Nos. 42 and 44, per ESPN. In almost every notable advanced metric, Notre Dame and Miami are close.

They played each other, and Miami won. That has to be the most important thing. The CFP committee has twisted itself into knots trying to explain it away but has admitted the Fighting Irish and the Hurricanes have reached the same comparison pool.

The CFP selection committee protocol lays out four main “principles” when discussing comparable teams: strength of schedule, head-to-head, “comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory)” and availability of key players and coaches.

Miami and Notre Dame are equal in all of them, except head-to-head, where Miami won.

Miami should be ranked ahead of Notre Dame, but I don’t think it will be on Tuesday night. I think the committee already laid the groundwork to keep Miami out weeks ago, and it doesn’t want to slide Notre Dame out of the field at the last minute after the Irish have ended the season on a 10-game winning streak. That was the original problem with placing Miami so low (No. 18) in the first edition of the rankings following the SMU loss, something I didn’t do here (No. 11) because head-to-head results should be the most important data point for comparing teams.

I do believe Notre Dame is a good enough team to win the national championship, and I have both teams making the field comfortably in my rankings here. But this isn’t what I project the committee will do.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a problem if the conferences weren’t so bloated that the team everyone agrees is the best in the ACC won’t even play for the conference championship and an automatic bid. Instead, the ACC title game is a matchup of Virginia and 7-5 Duke, neither of whom played Miami nor most of the top teams in the league. That conference realignment mistake has put the committee into a difficult spot it’s been trying to avoid for weeks.

Now it’s time to make a decision. Miami is probably going to be left out, and that’s a shame both on the committee and the ridiculous conference setup this sport now has. Or maybe they’ll surprise us.

Here is this week’s edition of The Athletic 136.

The only changes here are Texas A&M sliding down for its loss to Texas and Oklahoma dropping for its narrow 17-13 win against LSU. I am curious whether the selection committee will do anything with an Ole Miss team that lost its coach. I don’t project, so the Rebels stay at No. 6.

Ohio State will play Indiana for the Big Ten championship, but both will likely still get first-round byes. We might not be talking enough about Texas Tech as a team that could make some Playoff noise. The Red Raiders have won every game this season by at least three touchdowns, except their loss at Arizona State, where they were playing their backup quarterback.

While No. 11 Alabama is out of my bracket while Miami is in as an at-large, I don’t expect that to be the case in the real CFP rankings. Of course, Alabama could also beat Georgia to win the SEC and remove any doubt. Alabama has two top-15 wins, but it also has the worst loss among this group to 5-7 Florida State (which Miami beat), and it has close calls against South Carolina and Auburn this past Saturday. BYU could also upset Texas Tech and “steal” a bid. I like this Cougars team, but they’re 15th or worse in FPI or Sagarin (and sixth in strength of record), and they’ve had too many close calls and not enough big wins for me to put them in the field.

I remain confused why Texas has stayed behind Vanderbilt, even in this week’s AP poll. After beating Texas A&M, the Longhorns have three wins better than Vanderbilt’s best win, and one of those was over Vanderbilt. Yes, Texas lost to Florida and has had some close calls. But the Longhorns also have a seven-point loss to No. 1 Ohio State, while Vanderbilt won close calls against LSU and Auburn and played nobody of note in its nonconference schedule. I love this Vandy team and will probably have Diego Pavia on my Heisman ballot. But when comparing them to Texas, this shouldn’t be much of a conversation.

There’s not much other change in this group, other than the arrival of James Madison, Houston, Arizona and Missouri. JMU may have a real shot at the Playoff if Duke upsets Virginia. SMU stays in the top 25 after the loss to Cal because the Mustangs have four wins against teams with winning records, including top-10 Miami, while Missouri and Tennessee have zero wins against teams above .500.

Louisville moves back up after a 41-0 win against Kentucky, sliding ahead of Pitt due to their head-to-head result. Arizona State drops for its loss to Arizona but remains ahead of TCU due to their earlier matchup. New Mexico climbs after a double-overtime win against San Diego State. Duke gets up to No. 42 after beating Wake Forest and moves back ahead of Clemson thanks to an early-November win against the Tigers. East Carolina only “dropped” one spot because NC State moved back into a similar range, and the Wolfpack beat the Pirates in Week 1. NC State is a generally difficult team to place with wins over Virginia and Georgia Tech but a loss to Virginia Tech. Same with Wake Forest, which has wins against Virginia and SMU but a lopsided loss to Florida State.

Penn State gets back into the top 50 after beating Rutgers to rally to a 6-6 finish, climbing back ahead of a Nebraska team heading in the opposite direction.

Cincinnati drops after a loss to TCU. Cal is another weird team, with wins against Louisville and SMU sandwiched around a 31-10 loss to Stanford in the last three weeks. Same deal with No. 63 Washington State, which has one-score losses to Ole Miss and James Madison but also had to avenge an earlier loss to Oregon State.

Florida State drops after a loss to Florida, the Noles’ second loss to an interim head coach this year. Jacksonville State rises after beating Western Kentucky and will host the Conference USA championship game in a rematch with Kennesaw State. Troy also slides up for beating Southern Miss to reach the Sun Belt championship game. No. 75 Michigan State ended an eight-game losing streak by beating Maryland, which ended its own eight-game losing streak.

No. 79 Wisconsin is also in that list of Weird Teams, with wins against Washington and Illinois but also a lopsided loss to Maryland. No. 82 Arkansas finished the season at 2-10 but with a point differential of just minus-11. The Hogs may have a case as the best 2-10 team ever.

Stanford falls after a season-ending loss to Notre Dame that drops the Cardinal back below Bill Belichick’s North Carolina because of their earlier loss to the Tar Heels. No. 86 West Virginia is another difficult team: a 4-8 record with wins against Houston and Pitt, and close losses to Arizona State and TCU, but also a blowout defeat to UCF and a loss to Ohio. So the Mountaineers move up a couple of spots despite a blowout loss to Texas Tech as more of an overall adjustment.

Louisiana Tech rises for beating Missouri State, while Texas State and Miami (Ohio) also climb back into the top 100 after wins. Miami will play Western Michigan in the MAC Championship Game. The RedHawks won the three-way tiebreaker of common opponent record, despite having a 0-2 record against the other two teams (Ohio and Toledo).

Utah State inches up despite a one-point loss to Boise State because the Aggies have played a lot better down the stretch, with an overtime loss to UNLV and win against Fresno State. No. 102 Delaware got to 6-6 in its first season of FBS play after beating UTEP.

The rest of this group is set, without a bowl game to play. Marshall falls for its loss to Georgia Southern with bowl eligibility on the line, slipping behind Appalachian State due to their head-to-head result. Liberty was picked atop Conference USA’s preseason media poll, with 100 percent of voters picking the Flames to make a bowl game. Instead, they finish a disappointing 4-8 season at No. 111.

Kent State gets up to No. 114 for beating Northern Illinois to finish 5-7 after a winless campaign a year ago. A really strong season by coach Mark Carney, who won his way into the permanent job.

Oklahoma State finishes as the lowest-ranked Power 4 team. The Cowboys didn’t win an FBS game and lost to Tulsa. They also went winless in Big 12 play for the second year in a row, a stunning collapse after reaching the 2023 Big 12 title game. Oklahoma State did lose its final three games by one score each, so credit the Cowboys for not giving up.

Charlotte finishes at No. 135 because the 49ers lost every FBS game by more than 10 points. Georgia State played a few one-score games, including a 14-7 loss to James Madison that looks even wilder in hindsight, which is why the Panthers are No. 134.

But it’s UMass who finishes at No. 136 and winless. The Minutemen did have narrow losses to Buffalo and FCS Bryant. They also had eight losses by at least 28 points.