End of the Year Review: Notre Dame's Rollercoaster Ride Followed by Controversy
- Bruce Straughan
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Coming into this season, everybody and their brother inside the Notre Dame Football world knew that Notre Dame had to at worst split between the Miami and Texas A&M games in order to secure a playoff spot come December. They instead lost both games, which created a massive hole for the Irish to try to climb out of. Blame it on coaching, inexperience, scheme, whatever you want, but the fact remains, Notre Dame didn't get the job done against either of their two toughest opponents on the schedule, which would give the powers that be an out to exclude them from the playoffs.
Photo by Maysun Hassanali
As a result, their backs were against the wall, and the Irish were going to have to go on a run and need help in the process. So, it was going to be interesting to see how they handled the adversity and where they would go from there. As we all know, they went on an impressive 10-game winning streak in mostly dominating fashion to end the season, leading many to believe that they had indeed done enough to secure a playoff spot. It didn't help that the CFB Playoff Committee dragged them along for what seemed like forever, teasing them by putting them above Miami (a team they lost head-to-head to) until the very end.
The committee led Notre Dame like a horse with a carrot, with no intention of ever putting them in the playoffs, it would seem. The writing was on the wall when they moved Alabama up after struggling to beat a very bad Auburn team, securing them a spot in the playoffs regardless of the outcome of the SEC Championship. They continued to lead Notre Dame along for clicks and likes week after week on a show that seemed more like a WWE theatrical event than a show announcing football rankings, so it wasn't a shock to me when they decided to leave Notre Dame out. Notre Dame did something they can't do, and that is to leave it in the hands of others, trusting they will do the right thing. They won't!
If you haven't noticed by now, the college football world hates Notre Dame, and that couldn't have been more obvious when every media pundit went on a smear campaign for weeks on end to try to bully the committee into seeing it their way. Little did they know, the committee had already made up its mind about what it was going to do, exposing both sides to the corruption that was to follow. But should we be surprised by any of this? If you've been around as long as I have, probably not. This act by the committee only served to expose the shadiness and drop the curtain, much like in The Wizard of Oz, revealing them for what they are.
If the committee were being honest about it, they would have had Miami above Notre Dame the entire time, since they won head-to-head, and that's all anyone seems to care about while purposely ignoring the 1993 season outcome; When Notre Dame beat Florida State head-to-head, finished the season with identical records, and got screwed out of the National Championship. No one seemed to care about the head-to-head then, but all of a sudden, the Notre Dame Miami head-to-head result and playoff ranking were talked about like the greatest tragedy to ever occur in the sport. And never mind Alabama, which got beat by an abysmal Florida State team this year and suffered a 3rd loss as they got their doors blown off in the SEC Championship against Georgia, and magically never dropped a single spot in the playoff rankings. That's an issue in itself.
But, this has less to do with Miami and Alabama and more to do with the committee. Notre Dame wishes to remain independent and refuses to be held captive to the corporate powers who want total control of the comings and goings of their football program, just like they have with the other powerhouses within College Football. And don't let any fan or team tell you they wouldn't want their team to be independent, because if they did, they'd be lying to you. The ones that scream the loudest, "join a conference," are the same ones that don't have the brand power or money to be self-sufficient enough to do it.
Anybody with a brain, if they're being honest, knows that Notre Dame is one of the best teams in the country and should have been in the playoffs. Instead, we were stuck with one of the most boring playoff weekend slates you'll ever see, which included two G5 teams with no business being there in the first place getting run out of the stadium. But that's a different gripe for a different day.
In the end, Notre Dame made two fatal errors that kept them on the outside of the playoffs, looking in. First, they didn't split between Miami and Texas A&M, which would have left the committee no choice but to put them in, although they still would've tried not to. Second, they put themselves in a position where they needed help from an organization that would love nothing more than to keep them out. Going forward, there is really only one way to remain independent and still make the playoffs, and that's to leave no doubt by convincingly winning all your games. Don't, and Notre Dame could once again find itself in this same predicament.
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