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By Jordan Sigler
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On Saturday, Notre Dame went on the road to defeat Stanford 49-20.
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The Alabama Crimson Tide survived a late scare to fend off Auburn 27-20 in the "Iron Bowl" in Week 14.
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On Tuesday night, the College Football Playoff selection committee bumped the Crimson Tide to No. 9 while dropping the Fighting Irish to No. 10. Notre Dame will go into the conference championship weekend hoping No. 3 Georgia knocks the socks off of Alabama in the SEC championship and No. 4 Texas Tech defeats No. 11 BYU in the Big 12 championship.
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During an appearance on the ESPN broadcast Tuesday night after the rankings were released, committee member Hunter Yurachek explained why Alabama jumped Notre Dame.
Despite many in the national media thinking the big debate is between the Irish and No. 12 Miami, Yurachek suggested that the committee's most spirited argument was about what to do with ND and the Crimson Tide.
"I will tell you the debate between Alabama and Notre Dame over the past three weeks has been one of the strongest debates we've had in the room for the past two years that I've been a member of the committee," Yurachek said. "Notre Dame went on the road, had a strong win at Stanford.
"But Alabama went on the road, and in a rivalry game looked really good, especially in the first half, getting up 17 to nothing. Ran the ball well. Auburn came back at them. (Alabama) had a great gutsy call on 4th-and-2 late in the third quarter to get a touchdown, and then got the turnover late in that game. And I think that was enough to change the minds of a couple of committee members to push Alabama up ahead of Notre Dame in this week's rankings."
Yurachek left open the possibility that ND could jump over Alabama if the Crimson Tide lose to Georgia in the SEC championship.
In the meantime, nerves will be high in South Bend.
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