Notre Dame: The Big Ten holds the keys to Irish Playoff hopes

If Notre Dame is going to have an legit shot at the College Football Playoff, the chips need to fall a certain way in the Big Ten.

There are two battles in the Big Ten today that feature matchups of two Top 25 teams. Both will impact the College Football Playoff hopes of Notre Dame.

First up, the No. 14 Iowa Hawkeyes travel to Ann Arbor to take on the No. 19 Michigan Wolverines. Later on tonight, No. 25 Michigan State takes on No. 4 Ohio State at The Horseshoe. Those games — along with the rest of the Big Ten season — are key to whether or not Notre Dame can keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.

For starters, Notre Dame fans should be rooting for Iowa to take down Michigan. At this point, the impact Michigan has on Notre Dame’s strength of schedule is minimal. Regardless of who the Irish play, an 11-1 Notre Dame is going to get a playoff nod over a one-loss conference champ. Another loss for Michigan does make them less of an opponent on paper for Ohio State to finish the year with.

Iowa would then take on Wisconsin later this season in a battle of undefeateds. The winner of that game likely gets to the Big Ten Championship game. Ideally for the Irish, Wisconsin wins that one but loses to Ohio State in the regular season. They would still go to Indy and likely face the Buckeyes again. This time we want the Badgers to win that one, ensuring the Big Ten Champion has a loss. Wisconsin appears to have the best chance of any team in the Big Ten West of taking down the Buckeyes on a neutral field.

Obviously we are rooting for Michigan State to pull the upset against Ohio State today, as that would likely knock the Big Ten’s most legit College Football Playoff contender to the bottom of or possibly out of the Top 10 altogether.

Notre Dame will need one — possibly — two conferences to end up with champions who have questionable resumes. The Big Ten’s path to that scenario appears to be the most interesting, and it really gets going today.