For the second time under head coach Brian Kelly, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish has finished the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record. The first time came back in 2012, and it landed his team in the BCS National Championship game. Unfortunately, Notre Dame immediately ran into a brick wall in this game right from the opening kickoff in the form of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
This season, in 2018, we now have the more complex four-team playoff ranking system that focuses on strength of schedule and emphasizes not only a team’s recent play, but also winning conference championships. Given that the Fighting Irish are an independent team, they deny themselves the opportunity of playing in a conference championship game. Because of this, they pretty much guarantee that they will not make the playoffs unless they go undefeated in the regular season. Literally, by willingly staying independent, the Fighting Irish just make things much harder on themselves.
Going into conference championship weekend, Notre Dame is currently ranked No. 3 with Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio State, all with one loss and competing in a conference championship, right behind them.
Obviously, the Bulldogs are taking on the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game on Saturday, so it’s pretty safe to say that the current top-4 will not remain the same once the final rankings before the playoffs come out on Sunday.
Going back to Okalahoma and Ohio State, some think both teams could jump Notre Dame by winning a conference championship this weekend, promptly knocking them out of the top four.
As it was mentioned, both those teams have one loss this season. The Sooners dropped a close one back in early October to rival Texas (48-45) whom they play on Saturday. As for the Buckeyes, they got routed in a mid-October road game by Purdue (49-20).
I mention both of the times these losses occurred because, of course, how a team has performed recently is something the playoff committee focuses on a great deal. Taking all three of these teams into account, they have all played pretty exceptional down the stretch in November while getting some quality wins.
That being said, regardless of a one-loss Okalahoma and/or Ohio State team winning their conference championship this weekend, there is no reason the undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish should not end up in the top four for the playoffs.