College Football Playoff Projections 2018: Contenders make Week 10 statements

3. Notre Dame (9-0)

Notre Dame continues to win and continues to look uninspiring while doing so. The Irish held off a Northwestern rally to take down the Wildcats 31-21 on the road, passing one of their biggest remaining tests standing between them and the college football playoff.

I think the gap between the undefeated Irish and one-loss Michigan and Georgia has narrowed, and it wouldn’t shock me to see one of them leapfrog the Irish and keep Brian Kelly and company at No. 4 for a second week in a row. Even still, Notre Dame controls their own destiny to make the playoff.

The Irish’s strength-of-schedule has taken some hits with the relative weakness of Virginia Tech and Stanford – two wins that looked very impressive at the time of the games. However, Notre Dame still boasts the season opening win over Michigan, which is one of the most impressive wins in college football this season, and shouldn’t be discounted just because it happened in September instead of November.

The Irish have three games left in the regular season, and it would take a substantial upset to remove them from the ranks of the unbeaten and knock them out of the playoff field. The biggest challenger appears to be Syracuse, who comes to South Bend in two weeks.