Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 OCT. 11, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM BE HEARD! Send your letters to: steve.downey@on3.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 After a pair of emphatic victories — 56-30 over Purdue Sept. 20 and 56-13 at Arkansas Sept. 27 — that improved Notre Dame's record to 2-2, Fighting Irish fans began dreaming of a College Football Playoff at-large bid for the second straight season. That will, of course, require the Irish to win their last eight games of the regular season. Even then, though, a CFP bid wouldn't be a lock. On3's Ari Wasserman said as much in an interview with our own Mike Singer on Blue & Gold's YouTube channel. Here's a sample of how Notre Dame fans responded to that interview on our message board at BlueandGold.com. Realityisback2022: 10-2 is in. I'd honestly be surprised if many teams have less than two losses. We are finally in the meat of the sched- ule, and you can see how much harder the games were for the top teams yesterday. Vonteego: Said it perfectly, "Notre Dame is a top-10 team." They win 10 in a row and finish rolling, every- one in that committee room will say the same thing. Only need top 11 (excluding the Group of 5 champ). o_sjb75: The CFB Playoff at 10-2 is not a lock at this point in the season. I believe the probability of Notre Dame getting in at 10-2 is decent; how- ever, it's not a lock. SubwayDomerDFW: Parity is officially here in college football. Last year was nothing compared to what's coming up. We already have a one-loss Bama and Georgia in Week 5. LSU has a bunch of losses left. Texas is going to lose. akshatshekhar: Strength of record plus advanced stats loving them [the Irish] is going to make them a shoo-in at 10-2. What was Texas's best win last year? Penn State's? The counterargument is 2024 Miami but 2024 GT and Syracuse <<< 2025 A&M and Miami, plus's 2024 Miami had nail-biters against Louisville, Duke, Cal, and Virginia Tech. tky21: Completely agree. I think there'll be a decent number of 10-2 teams with very few undefeated or one-loss teams. Georgia, Texas, PSU, OSU, Tennessee and SMU all got in with 2 [losses]. There'll be a discussion about a bunch of 2-loss teams this year as well. Our best case is that our two losses by a grand total of 4 points came very early in the season against two teams currently ranked in the top 10. That and having the second-largest fan base in the country gets us in despite no signature wins so long as we win these games convincingly. Chicagohoss: I guarantee you if we don't lose another game. We will not be the only 2-loss team with a case to make the playoffs. If I were to guess there will be around 5 other teams like us. Mh2365: I am sure if we win out we will be in, and no one will want to have to play us in the first round … Tcnd543: Did Penn State have a quality win last year? They had 2 losses and were comfortably in. I generally agree with Ari's overall point that 10-2 is not a lock, but I think the challenge to his ar- gument that quality wins means more than close losses to top teams is Penn State's résumé last year. They were never on the bubble but had the same high-level résumé that ND will have if ND wins out. lucio: ND should root for chaos and carnage. BoCeJ62: He's right but let's just wait until No- vember for any playoff scenarios. JUST WIN, BABY. Bob Rodes: I don't think it's a lock that we get in if we win out by any means. But if we play the rest of our schedule the way we played Arkansas, I don't think that comparisons to 2024 Miami hold up, either. Miami had two close losses just like we do, it is true. But Miami's were at the end of the season to 8-5 Georgia Tech and 9-3 Syracuse. Not bad losses, but not good ones either. Also, they beat Virginia Tech, California and Louisville by a com- bined total of 12 points. So, Miami had a few "bad wins" on the way to a couple of late-season upsets. If Notre Dame wins the rest of its schedule convincingly, I don't see comparisons to last year's Miami team holding much water. Of course, there will be plenty of folks who disagree. Loudly, too. jcrone031: Right, it's very early, but what we're rooting for is: • ACC (1) - Undefeated Miami as the only bid • B1G (3) - Undefeated OSU playing undefeated Or- egon/Indiana in the championship game - Indiana beats Penn State - 3 bids from the league • Big 12 (1) - Undefeated Texas Tech as the only bid • SEC (4) - Undefeated Texas A&M playing 1-loss Ala- bama in the SECCG - 2 teams with 2 losses, everyone else with at least 3 • 1 undefeated G5 champion (or 1-loss Navy as a G5 champion would be even better) This leaves 2 spots fully open. With some leeway if there's too much 2-loss SEC chaos, Georgia Tech un- defeated in ACC play or Penn State beating Indiana. Nightmare scenario (why we certainly don't control our own destiny): • ACC (2) - 1-loss GT (loses to Georgia) beats undefeated Miami in ACCCG • Big 12 (2) - Iowa State beats undefeated TT in the Big 12 CCG • SEC (5) - 5 of Alabama, TAMU, Texas, Missouri, Ole Miss, Vandy, LSU, Georgia have 2 losses. • B1G (4) - Penn State beats Indiana, Indiana beats Oregon. • 1 G5 team At that point, there are 14 teams ahead of us. FROM THE WEB .com .com JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLUEANDGOLD.COM! Sign up for just $1 for the first seven days! 1. Publication Title 2. Publication Number 4. Issue Frequency 5. Number of Issues Published Annually 6. Annual Subscription Price 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher (Not printer) 9. 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Percent Paid (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c 100) PRIVACY NOTICE: See our privacy policy on www.usps.com. X Oct. 11, 2025 9/30/2025 609 7,635 7,647 99.8% 631 7,897 7,932 99.6% Publisher Head coach Marcus Freeman and the Irish need to handle their business and then hope things break their way to earn a College Football Playoff at-large bid. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER