Could an 11-1 Notre Dame miss the CFP (again)?
Josh Pate lays out the scenario where an 11-1 Fighting Irish team could be left out of the College Football Playoff if their strength of schedule doesn't hold up -- and other conferences produce multiple strong contenders. Subscribe to "Josh Pate's College Football Show" on YouTube .
Video Transcript
You said I could ask you one more thing nationally.
Yes.
Is there a scenario in which Notre Dame does not make the playoff?
Yes.
I think they would need to be At 10 and 2, they wouldn't make the playoff, and that's losing Brigham Young and that's losing Miami.
Are you saying that definitively?
Y- oh, yeah, 'cause I'm about to tell you how they'd miss at 11 and 1.
Oh.
So definitively at 10 and 2, I'm telling you.
Lost your mind.
All right.
He bumped his head before the show.
Well, let me, let me just walk it through.
Now, if we have a lot of chaos out there like we think there will be, like I don't even think we're gonna have an 11-win team in the SEC.
So if the, if the country shakes out like that, there's gonna be room for Notre Dame.
But if we have some separation in the Big Ten, if you really do have a Big Three and let's say USC or even Penn State, let's say they're kind of in the mix, or you've got four or five from the SEC, and you gotta put your G6 in there, and you gotta put your ACC and your Big 12 in there.
If, if their strength of schedule does them no favors, if Notre Dame- Which we don't really think it will right now.
Yeah.
What-- I, I got them as the number one overall seed, so, like, I couldn't believe in them any more than I do.
But you asked me for the alternative scenario here.
I'm just telling you, I'm not a person who ever faults them for strength of schedule.
Like, I don't use that as a knock on them at all.
If anything, I think it may have them healthier come playoff time.
Having said that, if Brigham Young doesn't follow through for them and they aren't a top 25 caliber win, if they go out there and win it, and all they're leaning on is Miami, and Miami goes in there and beats them.
And let's say it's 30 to 17, something fairly convincing, and they have no other win to hang their hat on, I don't even fault that committee for punishing that.
'Cause Notre Dame could look at them and say, "Well, it's not our fault," even though it technically is 'cause they control their schedule.
Right.
But that committee could look back and say, "All right, but it's not 9 and 3 Oklahoma's fault, or it's not 10 and 2 Georgia's fault either."
So, like, I, I know it seems insane when you say it on the surface, "Oh, one loss Notre Dame, of course they're in.
Maybe the eight seed, but of course they're in."
That is heavily dependent, given the nature of that schedule, on the way the rest of the country shakes out to me.
