When Notre Dame football lost to Northern Illinois during Week 2, it looked like they had washed away its chances at making the [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag].
Since the defeat, the Irish have reeled off 5-straight wins and have put themselves back into the conversation to make the 12-team tournament. On Monday, USA TODAY’s Austin Cartwright predicted which teams will make the CFP, as Notre Dame was selected as the No. 11 seed.
The first round matchup would be a rematch of a 2022 and 2023 home-and-home series against Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes took both games, but there were both highly competitive contests, even though Notre Dame dropped both of them.
The Buckeyes won the first contest in 2022 by a score of 21-10 in Columbus, and it was much closer in 2023, as Ohio State went into South Bend and needed a final drive to get a 17-14 win.
This would clearly be an interesting matchup, but there are others would be intriguing in the first round as well. Cartwright paired up the Texas Longhorns and Clemson Tigers along with the LSU Tigers against the Tennessee Volunteers.
As we get closer to the first CFP Rankings, this picture will clear up and we will see where teams really stand according to the committee.
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