The Notre Dame Fighting Irish aren’t going to be in the college football playoff. Heck, they’re not even going to be in college football‘s postseason because they’ve declined to play in a bowl game.
That’s not to say that had the Fighting Irish made the dance, they couldn’t have won it all.
That’s what Joel Klatt of Fox Sports thinks, at least.
“Here’s the thing that sucks in this whole conversation. I think that the committee ultimately got it right, and, at the same time, Notre Dame would beat half of this field. Both of those things can be true,” Klatt said during his show on Monday (h/t On3). “And, Notre Dame fans, you’re probably p-ssed at the sentiment, but it’s true.”
Notre Dame went 10-2 with two early-season losses that ended up being extremely consequential in the CFP committee’s eyes. The Irish lost to No. 10 Miami and No. 16 Texas A&M in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively, by a combined loss total of four points.
The loss against Miami, specifically, worked against the Fighting Irish because the Hurricanes got into the CFP over them.
The Irish did finish the season with wins over No. 20 USC and No. 22 Pitt, and they also finished the campaign with 10 straight wins.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish had a case to make the CFP
Klatt is right. Put Notre Dame in No. Miami’s spot, and they can absolutely make a run. The Hurricanes will square off with No. 7 Texas A&M in the first round. Again, the Irish lost to the Aggies earlier this season by just one point.
Heck, Klatt believes most of the teams in the CFP would be beatable for Notre Dame.
“You know, if you just go down the list, you just go down the list. Would they beat either of these Group of Five participants? Obviously, yes,” Klatt explained. “Would they, or should they, beat Miami, the way that they’ve looked during the course of the season, the way Miami has looked during the course of the season? Probably. Would they beat A&M? Probably. Would they beat Alabama? Probably. Would they beat Oklahoma? Probably. Would they beat Ole Miss? Probably. You get all the way up to, like, Oregon, Texas Tech, Georgia where you start to be like, oh, yeah, that would be, like, close, yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know who would win that game. So, Notre Dame would probably beat half the field. They’re mad about it.”
The Irish are indeed mad. They’re also shocked they didn’t make it.
“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said, via Yahoo Sports. “Overwhelming shock and sadness. Like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.”
That may seem like a bit of an overreaction, but that’s life in college football when all is said and done. When has everybody ever come out happy?