Will 11-1 ND Host a Playoff Game?
- Thread starter FightingIrish44
- Start date
I'm not sure. If A&M loses to Texas, I don't think ND has the quality win, add in the loss to NIU and don't think they finish top 8. Other variables factor in as well, but I believe a 2 loss sec or big team with a strong SOS could finish ahead of an 11-1 ND. I don't agree with it, but that's the reality.
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I sure hope so. That would be excellent. The inaugural playoff and one of the marquee opening games played at one of the cathedrals, no pun intended, of the sport. And presumably with cold winter weather in effect. I almost don't want us to get the five seed. I want to play a perennial power type team. Tennessee, Penn St., whatever, something like that.
Great question for a poll! Thanks for posting. I think our most likely seed at 11-1 is the 8 seed. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we ended up 7 or 9. I would be very surprised with anything else.
Texas A&M winning out would be big. Very reasonable chance they beat Texas. It’s at A&M.
The Big 10 getting 4 teams in ahead of ND is what concerns me. 11-1 Indiana with a tight loss to OSU would probably be ahead of ND. That’s four Big 10 teams in the top 8 possibly unless OSU gets dropped again by Oregon then maybe they’re behind ND. I’d say it’s 50/50 PSU loses again.
The data says ND is the 5th & 7th (FPI & F+) best team in the country respectively e.g. really sophisticated systems that take a lot of comprehensive data into consideration says ND would be favored against all but 5 or 6 other college football teams in the country.
That's pretty impressive, especially when you consider the talent disadvantage. ND is playing like a borderline tier 1 team while having tier 2 or tier 3 talent. That's GREAT coaching. If I was AD at ND, I'd extend Marcus Freeman based on the body of this work, and continue to invest as much resources as humanly possible in the talent acquisition side of the football program. But I waayyy digress on this topic.
Unfortunately, the people who seed the teams only use data like this as just one of many other factors that they consider. Not getting into a debate on whether this is right or wrong, but its factual.
NDs lack of credibility, based on their really poor schedule this season is probably going to cost them some seeding spots (and there's nobody left on the schedule that anybody really respects). If ND for example were to beat the remaining 4 opponents, there's something credibility lacking with all of them. None of them are legit top 10 teams. This is going to cost ND in the popularity contest that is part of this college football playoff seeding process.
ND has a lot of injuries, lacking inn known star players (less Love), and lost to one of the worst teams in the FBS, while their best victory is a Louisville or Texas A&M team that nobody really respects (these are viewed as 'good' but 'not great' teams) while the BIG10 and SEC are playing in weekly heavy weight slugfests against some of the best teams in the country every week including conference championship games.
ND has a really good team this year, and if they played a traditionally high-impact schedule like ND is known for during the regular season, like say a pre-ACC era ND schedule, they would still probably have a similar 1-loss or undefeated season with this 2024 team, because this team is probably good enough to beat most teams in the country whether they are playing garden variety schlep in the ACC or if they were in the BIG10 or SEC playing high quality opponents at the top of the rankings every week.
This new post Nick Saban era in college football looks entirely different. There seems to be far less super tier teams way at the top, but its way too soon to say if this is some long term trend in the sport or just an off year or two for the modern & traditional powers who have been dominating college football for the last two decades.
p.s. I voted "yes" in the poll, because I think ND is a legit top 7 type of team this season, and that this will lead to them ultimately being seeded as such over the final 4 games of the season but I can see the arguments as to why they may be seeded more conservatively.
That's pretty impressive, especially when you consider the talent disadvantage. ND is playing like a borderline tier 1 team while having tier 2 or tier 3 talent. That's GREAT coaching. If I was AD at ND, I'd extend Marcus Freeman based on the body of this work, and continue to invest as much resources as humanly possible in the talent acquisition side of the football program. But I waayyy digress on this topic.
Unfortunately, the people who seed the teams only use data like this as just one of many other factors that they consider. Not getting into a debate on whether this is right or wrong, but its factual.
NDs lack of credibility, based on their really poor schedule this season is probably going to cost them some seeding spots (and there's nobody left on the schedule that anybody really respects). If ND for example were to beat the remaining 4 opponents, there's something credibility lacking with all of them. None of them are legit top 10 teams. This is going to cost ND in the popularity contest that is part of this college football playoff seeding process.
ND has a lot of injuries, lacking inn known star players (less Love), and lost to one of the worst teams in the FBS, while their best victory is a Louisville or Texas A&M team that nobody really respects (these are viewed as 'good' but 'not great' teams) while the BIG10 and SEC are playing in weekly heavy weight slugfests against some of the best teams in the country every week including conference championship games.
ND has a really good team this year, and if they played a traditionally high-impact schedule like ND is known for during the regular season, like say a pre-ACC era ND schedule, they would still probably have a similar 1-loss or undefeated season with this 2024 team, because this team is probably good enough to beat most teams in the country whether they are playing garden variety schlep in the ACC or if they were in the BIG10 or SEC playing high quality opponents at the top of the rankings every week.
This new post Nick Saban era in college football looks entirely different. There seems to be far less super tier teams way at the top, but its way too soon to say if this is some long term trend in the sport or just an off year or two for the modern & traditional powers who have been dominating college football for the last two decades.
p.s. I voted "yes" in the poll, because I think ND is a legit top 7 type of team this season, and that this will lead to them ultimately being seeded as such over the final 4 games of the season but I can see the arguments as to why they may be seeded more conservatively.
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Probably depends on the score. If OSU blows them out, it exposes them for no top top 25 teams. If it comes down to the last qtr then maybe but doubt it.
