Monday, October 19, 2015

The Five Teams in Notre Dame's Playoff Path...


If you follow the NDGOIRISH blog you would have seen my post last week where I laid out the five teams in Notre Dame's way of earning one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff.

That's assuming -- Notre Dame runs the table and beats three ranked teams -- ALL ON THE ROAD -- over the last six weeks of the season...

Now, I'm giving one of the four spots to the SEC Champion and I'm giving another spot to the Big Ten Champion -- so, as I see it -- Notre Dame needs to finish ahead of two of the following conference champions:  ACC, Big 12 and Pac 12.

Here are the FIVE TEAMS from these conferences in Notre Dame's way of earning a College Football Playoff spot -- and the ranked teams left on their schedule:

BAYLOR
  • Oklahoma
  • @ Oklahoma State
  • @ TCU

UTAH
  • They do not face a ranked team for the rest of the season

TCU
  • @ Oklahoma State
  • @ Oklahoma
  • Baylor

CLEMSON
  • Florida State

FLORIDA STATE
  • @ Clemson
  • @ Florida

So, here's how it needs to play out:

BAYLOR / TCU -- this needs to happen:
  • We need Baylor and TCU to lose one of their games with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State
  • If only one of the teams loses -- that team needs to win the game between Baylor and TCU on November 27th

UTAH -- this needs to happen:
  • Utah needs to lose one game -- they have these games left on the road;  USC, Washington and Arizona

CLEMSON -- this needs to happen:
  • They need to lose to Florida State

FLORIDA STATE -- this needs to happen:
  • They need to beat Clemson -- then get hammered by Florida when they travel to the Swamp to take on the Gators on November 28th

And, we need STANFORD to keep on winning -- BIG!!!  Setting up our game in Palo Alto on November 28th as our "play-in" game for the College Football Playoff!