Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Dame vied for the national title be- cause of the way it was matched up against No. 1 in a major bowl even though the Irish would lose later in the regular season or not finish in the "Final Four." • In 1970, Notre Dame was 9-0 and already invited to play defending na- tional champion and No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl. However, the Irish then lost 38-28 USC in the regular-season finale and plummeted to No. 6. Amazingly, the Irish still almost won the national title when they up- set Texas and then No. 2 Ohio State was stunned by 8-3 Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Had No. 3 Nebraska lost to LSU in the Orange, Notre Dame would have leapfrogged all the way from No. 6 to No. 1. A late score by Nebraska enabled it to prevail 17-12, so the Irish finished No. 2 — but it's a chance that would have not been af- forded in today's system. • In 1977, a 10-1 Notre Dame team that was No. 5 in the AP poll was matched up again with No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Also ranked ahead of the Irish were the Big 8 winner (Okla- homa), SEC champ (Alabama) and Big Ten title holder (Michigan). Yet with a dominant 38-10 victory over the Longhorns, Notre Dame vaulted all the way to No. 1, even though Alabama also won its bowl game. Would such an outcome be possible today? It depends on how a CFP com- mittee would have voted back then. Still, it shows how the system was more favorable to the Irish back then. • In 1980, No. 2 and 9-0-1 Notre Dame was matched up with No. 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Problem was that Notre Dame still had a regu- lar-season game at USC and lost, 20-3, thereby falling to No. 7. Ostensibly, it was out of the national title race … but an upset of the Bull- dogs might have kept it in the conver- sation with some help from elsewhere. Again, that would not be possible in the four-team playoff format. FIVE YEARS IN THE 'FINAL FOUR' What if there would have been a four-team playoff in the years where Notre Dame did finish the regular sea- son in the top four? • In 1973, with No. 2 Oklahoma on probation and ineligible, the playoff matchups likely would have been No. 1 Alabama (11-0) versus 10-0-1 and No. 5 Michigan, and then No. 3 Notre Dame (10-0) versus No. 4 Ohio State (9-0-1). Thus, Notre Dame would have had to beat both the Buckeyes and prob- ably the Crimson Tide. Instead, it needed only an epic 24-23 win over Alabama to win it all. • In 1988, No. 1 Notre Dame (11-0) would have been matched up with No. 4 Florida State (10-1), with the winner playing either No. 2 Miami (10-1) or No. 3 West Virginia (11-0). Think about it: The Irish would have had to first defeat the dangerous Semi- noles — and then probably conquer Miami a second time after eking out a 31-30 home win earlier. Instead, all that was required was beating a solid but inferior West Vir- ginia team (34-21) to clinch the title. • In 1989, No. 1 Colorado (11-0) would have been matched up with No. 4 Notre Dame (11-1) in the Orange Bowl in the playoff, while No. 2 Miami