Notre Dame Football: For the Irish, it’s win and they’re in
Notre Dame football is on the threshold of making their first College Football Playoff appearance. If the Irish win one more, they’re in.
Conference championships and strength of schedule matter, to a point, but neither metric has as much staying power as a perfect record earned against a list of sturdy Power 5 opponents. That’s the burden Notre Dame now carries into their final regular season game against USC.
Maintaining the No. 3 rank in the College Football Playoff ranks once again, the Irish have effectively eliminated all other variables heading into the last weekend of November. There’s one more game to play for the Irish and the outcome will produce a binary result; Notre Dame will either be undefeated or they won’t.
A loss to USC wouldn’t nullify the impressive resume Notre Dame has accrued to this point. They’ve bested Michigan, Stanford, Northwestern and Syracuse along the way, and those wins are more than enough to keep them in the running for one of the four spots. There’s still a decent shot if the Irish go 11-1, but 12-0 is automatic.
ESPN FPI gives Notre Dame a 76.1 percent chance of taking down the Trojans in the Coliseum on Saturday. Betting lines opened with the Irish as an eight-point favorite and have ballooned to 11-points as of the latest College Football Playoff rankings. Notre Dame should win this game, they should be undefeated and they should become the first non-Power 5 team to reach the Playoff.
Next. CFB Playoff and bowl projections after Week 12. dark
That’s a lot on the line for one football game. USC will be playing for their sixth win and postseason eligibility as well as the preservation of head coach Clay Helton’s job. Something’s got to give. The Irish hope it’s their streak of late season collapses which comes to an end. It’s just one win away.