Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS like it did TCU and Baylor? After all, selection committee chairman Jeff Long admitted Ohio State's 13th game — a Big Ten championship rout of Wisconsin — helped the Buckeyes earn the No. 4 ranking. "Everything is a fluid situation after today's decisions relative to who the four teams are," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said Dec. 7. "I think everybody is kind of back into their own conferences looking at did we make the right choices in scheduling and decisions? "I'm sure [director of athletics Jack Swarbrick] and I will get back together and look at where we are and are we doing the right things? … Do we go to [a six-team playoff]? Do we go to eight? I think all those things are on the table for discussion as well as would we be in at 11-1?" While a move to an expanded playoff in many ways seems inevitable, college football is locked into the current format for the time being. Notre Dame's No. 1 concern should not be about whether the playoff expands, but rather how it can best position itself for a favorable viewing from the committee. "It's our responsibility to be prepared to answer those questions based upon how we're scheduling," Kelly said. Notre Dame's annual schedule is strong enough, many contend, that a typical 12-game slate would in many years be stronger than a 13-game sched- ule of another team. The Irish, however, should not bet on that. Remember this past offseason when Notre Dame's schedule was regarded as the toughest in the country? Then Michigan, Stan- ford, North Carolina and others proved to be weaker than their summer projec- tions. Currently, the only way Notre Dame could add a 13th game is if it agreed to play at Hawaii. According to NCAA rules, teams that do so are permitted to play 13 regular-season games. The Irish discussed ending their 2012 season at Hawaii as a 13th game, but those plans never came to fruition. While the War- riors would hardly boost Notre Dame's strength of schedule, it could prove ben- eficial purely as a 13th scheduled game. Kelly was asked whether he thought back to his 12-0 regular season in 2012 — in which the Irish more often than not won in ugly fashion — when seeing one-loss Alabama and one-loss Oregon pass undefeated Florida State in recent weeks. "I think that winning's too hard in col- lege football not to be evaluated on a full body of work," Kelly said. "I certainly was impressed by what Ohio State did against Wisconsin, but I'm not some- body that is just easily impressed by one game. I think the whole year has to be looked at. So I think, when you win 12 games and you go undefeated, no mat- ter how you do it, you cannot overlook that kind of work." Hypotheticals of past seasons are just as much of an unknown as those for fu- ture seasons. All Notre Dame can do is look into how it might be vulnerable if its résumé hits the desk of the selection committee in future years. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com