Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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is probably unlikely, but the Irish will have four this year, including the opener at Texas (Big 12) and the clash two weeks later with Michigan State, the Big Ten representative in last year's College Football Playoff. In 2017, there is no Big 12 represen- tative, but the Georgia Bulldogs will fill the SEC void. POSITIONING FOR THE PLAYOFF Ever since the four-team College Football Playoff was introduced in 2014 and signed through the 2025 season, there was a hypothetical that hovered over Notre Dame's football team: What if the Fighting Irish fin- ish a regular season with an 11-1 re- cord — but still are not selected to be among the four teams that would play for the national title? Would that force Swarbrick to re- linquish the school's cherished foot- ball independence? The question came close to being put to the test in the playoff's second season when 10-1 and No. 6 Notre Dame took a 36-35 lead at No. 9 Stan- ford with 30 seconds left. The pos- sible dilemma was rendered moot when Stanford kicked the game- winning field goal as time elapsed to record a 38-36 victory. However, the victors in the Power Five conference title games looked like they were go- ing to be in Final Four anyway: • ACC winner Clemson finished the regular season unbeaten and No. 1. • SEC winner Alabama was No. 2. • Big Ten winner Michigan State was No. 3 after defeating unbeaten Iowa in the conference title game. Had the Hawkeyes won, then they would have taken the playoff spot. • The Big 12 didn't have a confer- ence title game — which contributed to keeping it from landing a spot in 2014 — but Oklahoma vanquished three straight teams that had been ranked in the top 10 (Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State), most notably annihilating the Cowboys 58-23 on the road while the Irish lost to Stan- ford. Style points matter, and Swarbrick knows it. Notre Dame was ranked No. 4 in the CFP poll at 8-1 and stayed there after an uninspiring 28-7 win at home versus a Wake Forest team that would finish 3-9. When the Irish squeaked by Boston Col- lege (19-16), another team that would finish 3-9, it pretty much sealed its fate despite entering the Stanford game 10-1. Notre Dame had dropped to No. 6 in the CFP poll based on two straight relatively blasé perfor- mances. But the question remains: Had the Irish hung on to win but Oklahoma still made the College Football Play- off on style points, would that have prompted a serious evaluation on Swarbrick's part about whether full conference affiliation is needed? "No, not at all," he replied. "Had we played differently against Wake Forest and Boston College and fin- ished 11-1, it might raise a different question. But we had lost the edge we carried into those games relative to the selection committee's view of us. "In some ways that hurt us more than the Stanford outcome."