(Because the fanboys will argue who shouldn’t be in to death)

If we pick up a loss - in addition to evidence from all the games currently played by contending teams (including us) - it’s pretty clear that we couldn’t compete in the playoffs.

We’re undefeated and don’t even look like we can compete. A loss is not going to improve that.

Short of a close loss to USC, we should drop like rocks if we were to lose to any other team on our schedule.

If we remain undefeated we can keep that hope. There could be a magic, destiny, and team belief that would overcome a significant gap in talent, experience, coaching, coaching, and coaching.

If we don’t...it really does become academic whether or not we’d have any chance against the other 3 teams that earn their way in. Maybe we could get a really favorable semifinal matchup but there’s going to be at least 2 of the 3 in the tourney that will beat us 2012 style. I have no interest in going through that again just so we can say we made the playoffs. Give me something the program can build off of.

got a good fight from Minnesota. I saw parts of the second half and but for a short missed FG by Minn., the game would have been 20-17 early 4th Quarter. I know that Ohio State could have been playing down ( ala ND versus Pitt), but Minnesota moved the ball. Since Bosa left, their defense is not scary good. Still five games left, so who knows what team we will have come November.

I'm not arguing that we wouldnt get our ass kicked by Bama (everyone does) and maybe OSU. But if Clemson can recover from a loss against a terrible Syracuse team last year (they were back to #1 before they even played the ACC chsmp game), why couldn't we be afforded the same opportunity against say Northwestern or something?

ND...think 1989 and 1993. The talking heads at the WWL are already discounting our strength of schedule. They are not acknowledging ND wins against UM, Stanford or VT, while heaping tons of praise on Bama's wins vs Arkansas State, LA-Lafayette, and soon to be The Citadel. Four of seven wins for ND have gone deep into 4th quarter or were ugly games 3 of which were against inferior talented teams. If ND goes undefeated, but has more squeakers in the remaining 5 games it may not make it into the playoff.

no one on ESPN is giving Bama props for beating Arkansas St. ND has plenty of flaws and isn't above being criticized.

An undefeated ND team will make the playoff as at least a 3 seed if not higher.

An undefeated ND won't get left out.

ND has flaws. A loss this late in the season, given the quality of the schedule left will likely knock us out of playoff contention ... that seems fair and isn't a product of ESPN being out to get us.

We are talking late October or November. With no quality games left to prove our selves after .

And that's only if USC has risen back up to at least top-20 in the polls.

(If there are any more games where our offense looks like it did against Pitt, it might not matter how good USC is. The "eye test" would kill us.)

538 gives Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State better than a 99% chance of going to the playoff if they win out.

They give NC State a 98% chance.
But Notre Dame only a 91% chance.


They must have some weird assumption about conference membership built into their model.

Edit. Looking at their methodology, it's probably that ND is being penalized (inadvertently or not) in this scenario for not having a conference championship. I think that's a flaw in the model, at least in the case of ND being undefeated. In the real world that would probably only factor into the committee's thinking if they were deciding between a one-loss ND and some other one-loss team.

Bosa is gone. The importance of his loss can't be overstated. Penn State, as much as it hurts me to admit this, whipped them up and down the field for 58 and a half minutes. I certainly don't think Penn State is a better team than Notre Dame.

I'm not saying it would be an Irish win, but I don't think it would be a walk in the park for them.

Alabama... yeah, lights out, Irish.

of my mouth. Alabama is the class of all College football.

of my mouth. Alabama is the class of all College football.

With weeks to prepare.


OSU would throttle us.

Given extra time to prepare, great coaches tend to be really hard to beat. Meyer and Saban are great coaches. Brian Kelly is not a great coach. Even if the talent is similar (and I'm not sure it is if we're talking about impact players), the coaching gap is so pronounced that it's hard to imagine ND keeping up for long.

Frankly, that's why we should care as much about our seed as we do about just getting in to the playoffs. If you're going to get one of these guys, it's much easier in round 2 of the playoffs, because they won't have a month to pick you apart. I'd prefer to play Clemson in Round 1 and take my chances with Bama and/or OSU in Round 2.

Consider this: In the last three years, Bama is 3-0 in Round 1, and has won by an average score of 29-4. In Round 2, Bama is 2-1, with an average score of 35-31.

Saban with a month to prepare is almost impossible to defeat.

ND would be at a distinct disadvantage in preparation.

But I just don't see OSU as world-beaters. There's a certain Notre Dame-esque tendency to play to their lesser talented opponents in this year's Ohio State. As we well know, that can spell trouble against teams with individual talent at spots across the field.

Meyer can’t scheme those problems away with extra prep.

Hell, look at the secondaries we've played against.

I know they have problems, but on the whole, their team matches up very well against ours. Very very well in fact.

it was the O-line and Book's lack of recognition of what the Defense was doing.

And who do you think has a better DL and LB group, Pitt or OSU?

I was just responding to the prior post that suggested that OSU has secondary issues.

Yes, they do, but their defense is world's better than Pitt, as is their secondary, and I assure you, they would play us the same way Pitt did, with press coverage and daring us to beat them over the top, even without Bosa. Moreover, they are getting a bunch of previously injured players on D back this week (except Bosa, who is done and heading to the NFL).

We agree re: OSU. We also haven't played a QB anywhere near Haskins' level this year.