Is Notre Dame on Pace to Make the College Football Playoff?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are undefeated through eight games and are currently fourth in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Notre Dame has beaten the likes of Michigan, Stanford and Virginia Tech and figure to finish the remainder of the season undefeated barring some upset. This is a football team that deserves to be in the four-team tournament for the National Championship.

Now, teams like Notre Dame and UCF, while undefeated, get flak for not being in a Power 5 conference. The College Football Selection committee does have an obvious bias for Power 5 teams, as there has never been a non-power 5 school voted into the College Football Playoff since its first year in 2015 – even when Group of 5 schools like UCF win 20 games in a row.

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However, Notre Dame may be too good this year to ignore. The Irish are 3rd in the country, according to the AP poll. But of course, the CFP committee would rank LSU in front of Notre Dame because of SEC bias, right? The bottom line, though, is that the committee is recognizing a non-power 5 school as a CFP contender, which is a step in the right direction.

I do have a feeling Notre Dame will stay at that fourth spot if they remain undefeated, but something is telling me if the Irish have any close calls, Michigan, who ranks at fifth in CFP’s rankings, would leap frog them. I would not at all be surprised if that were to happen. Is it fair? Absolutely not. Does it sound like something the committee would do? Absolutely.

So for Notre Dame to secure their spot as the fourth, and that is the absolute highest the committee will rank them, then they have to win the remainder of their games by a substantial margin. It is possible, but it will not be easy. They face off against Northwestern, #19 Syracuse, and travel to Southern California to take on USC. All those teams could give the Irish a fight.

It seems that the Fighting Irish are destined for failure by the committee, but with the fantastic play of Ian Book and Dexter Williams, and the Irish’s smothering defense, there is absolutely zero reason to believe this team will not be in the College Football Playoff.