Remember what feels like forever ago when Notre Dame last played a football game and Brian Kelly met the media and stated his team had already completed a Big Ten schedule and played more games than any Pac-12 program would?
Why would Kelly feel the need to start politicking for a potential College Football Playoff spot already?
If you didn’t already know, then the latest CBS Sports bowl projections done by Jerry Palm should answer that question for you.
In the projections Palm has the College Football Playoff matchups being:
Rose Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Clemson
Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Oregon
So, where is Notre Dame?
Palm projects the Irish to be in the Orange Bowl taking on Florida.
Now let’s set the record straight here and give him credit for remaining consistent in his projections. He has had Oregon in the playoff for a few weeks now. But the idea of this should drive college football fans everywhere besides the West Coast bonkers.
Palm is right when he mentions that no unbeaten Power Five team has ever been left out of the College Football Playoff. But it’s also worth noting that no season has ever proceeded like the 2020 season has as we see some teams still just starting their seasons while others are in the home stretch.
The grind of a regular season should matter in determining the four teams who will play in the College Football Playoff. Assuming Palm is right and Notre Dame doesn’t win the ACC Championship (which I don’t think is anywhere near as guaranteed as the masses seem to believe), if it wins the final three regular-season games it will be 11-1 with that one loss coming to a team they had previously beaten.
It would still be four more wins, an entire month’s worth, more than a potential unbeaten Oregon or USC had on the year. It would also be three more wins over Power Five opponents than either the Ducks or Trojans would have, assuming one ran the table.
I don’t blame Palm for this, he’s projecting what he thinks happens, not what he’d do.
But, at some point, logic has to kick in for the CFP committee in realizing a team playing that many fewer games simply can’t present anywhere near the same caliber resume as those who have been playing since early September.
At least I hope they realize that otherwise this entire CFP could be looking flat-out dumb a month from now.