Notre Dame football was actually punished by the CFB Playoff committee despite the controversy over their current ranking
Notre Dame football would have quite a difficult path back to the CFB national championship game.
It was a pretty predictable College Football Playoff Tuesday night for the Notre Dame football program. As was expected, head coach Marcus Freeman and his Fighting Irish squad rose one spot in the latest playoff ranking.
They now sit as the No. 9 team in the country, which is a great spot to be in considering their two early-season losses. As has been the case for a couple of weeks now, if Notre Dame wins out in the regular season, which is doable, it will be in when the final playoff field is set.
Given the chaotic nature of the college football landscape, it’s not the best idea to hyperfocus on some of these early playoff game predictions. Things will change a ton before the final ranking is set, but it can still be fun to look ahead a bit.
If the season did end today, however, it wouldn’t be the most advantageous hypothetical for Notre Dame to make another deep playoff run. It would all begin by traveling out to Eugene, Oregon, to take on Dan Lanning and his Oregon Ducks.
A brutal stretch for Notre Dame
While Oregon is a talented team, it has flaws, just like every other team this season. Traveling out to Eugene wouldn’t be easy, and the Ducks would be the betting favorite for obvious reasons. With running back Jeremiyah Love and quarterback CJ Carr leading the Irish, they have the offensive firepower to win out in the end. It would, at least, be a competitive and entertaining football game.
If Notre Dame did beat Oregon, its next challenge would be against the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. Would the Irish have no chance in that context? Of course not. This is college football, so anything can happen. The odds would obviously, however, be firmly stacked against them. Few people would be picking Notre Dame to win that game in this hypothetical.
Let’s say that the Fighting Irish somehow managed to upset the Buckeyes. That would mean they would be one step closer to a championship return, but the last step is another challenging one. Notre Dame would more than likely have to face either Alabama or Georgia to advance to the title game. Oregon, Ohio State, and one of those two programs is an absolutely brutal playoff stretch.
When you compare that side of the bracket to the other, it isn’t even close in terms of difficulty. The Irish would have quite the daunting task, and you can argue that the No. 9 ranking is the worst possible outcome for any program as of today. That road would be nearly impossible to navigate, or at least improbable.
As mentioned before, this is a conversation that most likely won’t matter in the end. Some teams will cannibalize one another, and nobody truly knows how everything will shake out. In the modern world of college football, where you have to play 16 plus games to win a championship, hoping for the most ideal path is an important conversation to have.
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