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Notre Dame Football: 5 reasons the Irish will be in 2019 College Football Playoff

By Quinn Douglas

SOUTH BEND, IN - SEPTEMBER 01: Zach Gentry #83 and Khalid Kareem #53 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrate a 24-17 win over the Michigan Wolverines at Notre Dame Stadium on September 1, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - SEPTEMBER 01: Zach Gentry #83 and Khalid Kareem #53 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrate a 24-17 win over the Michigan Wolverines at Notre Dame Stadium on September 1, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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BLACKSBURG, VA – OCTOBER 6: The Notre Dame leprechaun celebrates following a touchdown against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the second half at Lane Stadium on October 6, 2018 in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Photo by Michael Shroyer/Getty Images)
BLACKSBURG, VA – OCTOBER 6: The Notre Dame leprechaun celebrates following a touchdown against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the second half at Lane Stadium on October 6, 2018 in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Photo by Michael Shroyer/Getty Images) /

1. The remaining schedule

As I alluded to earlier, the Irish do boast the best resume in college football as of now with wins over Michigan, Stanford and Virginia Tech. Thankfully for Notre Dame, the schedule is for the most part downhill from here until the end of the regular season. According to the Sagarin computer rankings that are published by USA Today, the worst team the Irish have played is Ball State, who is ranked 116th, which is 37 spots behind Wake Forest, who is ranked 79th.

For the rest of the season, the Irish do not play a team higher than 40th the rest of the season, which is USC at the end of the regular season in Los Angeles. Notre Dame takes on a Navy team this weekend that has struggled mightily this season sitting at 2-4. Their game at Northwestern could be sneaky tough as the Wildcats have shown they can hang around with the big dogs shown by their win against Michigan State.

Their game at Florida State may look tough on the surface, but if you’ve payed attention to college football a lot this season, you’ll soon realize the Seminoles are a shell of their former selves. The best chance for the Irish to lose will be their Yankee Stadium game against Syracuse, which could be a de facto home game for the Orange, who have a good team led by a great coach in Dino Babers. Notre Dame ends the season against a USC team that has struggled to find its identity all season.

Next. NFL Mock Draft 2019: First round after Week 6. dark

Nothing in sports is 100 percent likely to happen until the minute it does, but Notre Dame’s playoff chances likely sit in the upper 90th percentiles with their remaining schedule. Barring drastic changes such as injuries, count on the Golden Domers to be playing on New Year’s Day.

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