Notre Dame improved to 5-1 this weekend and earned its fourth straight win by dominating Stanford by a 49-7 score. It was Notre Dame's fourth win in five games against the Cardinal, and it's clear the Irish have re-taken control of this series.
The win adds to Notre Dame's College Football Playoff resume, and the wild weekend of action certainly shook things up nationally. We are just three weeks away from the first playoff rankings coming out and the projections for the playoff continue to get more interesting.
ESPN college football writers Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura both updated their playoff projections, and both have the Fighting Irish getting in.
Schlabach has the Irish as a No. 11 seed while Bonagura has them as a No. 12 seed. When looking at Bonagura's projection, he has Notre Dame as a No. 12 seed and Boise State earning the No. 4 seed as the Group of 5 representative.
Bonagura has Notre Dame slated to play - and lose to - Ohio State in the first round. Schlabach has the Irish lated to play - and lose to - Georgia in the first round. Both games would be on the campus of the higher seeded team.
Here are their projections:
Schlabach
No. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 12 Boise State
No. 6 Georgia vs. No. 11 Notre Dame
No. 7 Penn State vs. No. 10 Iowa State
No. 8 Clemson vs. No. 9 Alabama
No. 1 - Texas
No. 2 - Oregon
No. 3 - Miami
No. 4 - BYU
Bonagura
No. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 12 Notre Dame
No. 6 Penn State vs. No. 11 Clemson
No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 Iowa State
No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 9 BYU
No. 1 - Texas
No. 2 - Oregon
No. 3 - Miami
No. 4 - Boise State
One issue I have with their projections is they aren't really projecting enough. Bonagura, for example, has Clemson in as an at large team and has Miami as the ACC Champ. I'm fine with that, but that would mean Clemson has to lose one more game, which would put them at 11-2 with losses to Miami and Georgia, and their best win would be the same as what would likely be Notre Dame's second or third best win (Louisville). It's hard for me to envision a two-loss Clemson team with no good wins being seeded higher than an 11-1 Notre Dame team with at least one very good win.
The Athletic also had Notre Dame slated to face Georgia in its College Football Playoff projection, but it's No. 7 (UGA) vs. No. 10 (ND) matchup.
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