Notre Dame’s chances to make a College Football Playoff run just got a whole lot clearer following a chaotic weekend of action
The 2025 season for Notre Dame once looked bleak. It appears their CFB playoff chances are still very real.
Head coach Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame football pushed their overall season record to 3-2 following a 28 to 7 victory against Boise State this weekend. With the Fighting Irish dropping their first two games of the 2025 college football season to the Miami Hurricanes and the Texas A&M Aggies, times were a little bleak, and many wondered if the team had already eliminated itself from College Football Playoff contention. Things certainly didn’t feel overly positive.
There were some who thought there was virtually no chance, and to even entertain a playoff opportunity with two losses on the Notre Dame resume was a bit silly. Following this weekend, those aspirations are still very much in play. It feels like there is a ton of chaos on the horizon, and it would only continue to help Coach Freeman’s squad.
With Notre Dame not playing in a conference, their path toward potentially making a College Football Playoff run will start with the next seven games and its ability to win out. If the Irish suffer a third loss during the regular season, they will have no opportunity to earn a spot when the field is officially set. That is where the conversation needs to start, winning against NC State, USC, Boston College, Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Stanford. Freeman’s squad has seven contests remaining to prove that they are one of the best teams in the entire county.
Without that final opportunity to potentially win a conference championship game, winning each of those games with some style and flair wouldn’t hurt them either. We have seen Freeman lean into that ideology just last year. The Irish don’t need to just win football games the rest of the year. They need to dominate the opposition and leave no doubt.
Let the chaos begin
Even if Notre Dame does make it to 10-2 at the end of the year, this is still a team that might need a little bit of help to earn a spot in the field. Luckily for them, we saw that there could be some more chaos on the horizon judging by what we saw this past weekend. There are some very good teams nationally, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see very few teams undefeated late into the season. It feels like there are a lot of things that could happen, which would help Notre Dame tremendously.
We just saw major shakeups in the latest Top-25 AP Poll that was just released. That includes both Penn State and Texas falling completely out of the ranking. The Nittany Lions were in the Top-10 just last week, but a humiliating loss to 0-4 UCLA led to a massive drop. The Longhorns, who were also inside the Top-10, suffered a similar fate due to their loss to the unranked Florida Gators. As we have seen, things can change quickly.
We also saw teams like Iowa State, Vanderbilt, and Florida State all also suffer defeat on Saturday, and are now ranked behind the Fighting Irish. Despite being just a game over .500 right now, Notre Dame finds itself at No. 16 in that latest poll, which is pretty crazy to see. It is also helping their case that both Miami and Texas A&M (their two losses) are now both inside the Top-5 and are taking care of business in impressive fashion each week. As long as those teams keep winning, it only helps Notre Dame’s resume after losing those games by a combined four points to begin the year.
There is a lot that is going to happen from now until the end of the season, but optimism is steadily rising on the side of the Irish.
As long as quarterback CJ Carr keeps throwing touchdowns, Jeremiyah Love keeps making huge plays, and the defense under Chris Ash keeps getting better, this team could be dangerous if they make it into the playoffs. Those deeper conversations are going to come down the road. There is a lot that needs to go into Notre Dame’s favor, but they clearly have something to still play for.
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The Notre Dame storyline we watched during the Fighting Irish victory over Boise State that everyone needs to talk about
The Notre Dame defense put together a nice defensive performance against Boise State. That side of the ball had one of the biggest storylines of the game.
