Notre Dame Football: The Second Half Rooting Guide

You should root against…

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: The Yellow Jackets aren’t exactly a great team, and that’s a trend you’d like to see continue. Why, you ask? Over its final four games, Georgia Tech plays three common opponents with Notre Dame.

A trip to Virginia and then hosting Virginia Tech and Georgia are games that Georgia Tech can’t win. Georgia Tech will likely end up a 9 or 10 loss team, and a victory over a common opponent wouldn’t look great for Notre Dame’s strength of schedule.

Florida Gators: I’m sure you’re shocked to see you shouldn’t be cheering for an SEC team, but here we are. Florida does have 1 loss to an elite LSU team, so you’d like to see a slip up somewhere. It’s not so much the remainder of the season, but the Gators next two games are two you’d like to see in the loss column.

This Saturday, the Gators go to South Carolina and we’ve already established why that would be a big win for South Carolina and equally big loss for Florida. Florida then has a bye before traveling to Jacksonville for a huge SEC East-defining matchup against Georgia. If Florida wins, it puts them in prime position to win the East. Even worse than that, it gives Georgia a second loss that once again knocks Notre Dame’s strength of schedule down.

Michigan Wolverines: I mean, does this need an explanation?

Oklahoma Sooners: Although I wanted to keep elite teams off this list all together, Oklahoma doesn’t play any common opponents and I really have no choice. Oklahoma has an electric offense, and if their defense continues to play like it did against Texas, nobody in the Big 12 is beating the Sooners.

Oklahoma doesn’t have a huge game left, but they do have some tricky ones. Iowa State and TCU could be interesting, and Oklahoma State is always a fun game. But out of nowhere, a road trip to Baylor suddenly looks huge. You’d think one loss would be enough to keep the Big 12 out, but Oklahoma is good enough, and if we’re being honest, enough of a household brand that one loss could be overlooked. Even if the Sooners do go unbeaten, done forget about the Big 12 Championship game, where Oklahoma plays either Baylor, Iowa State or Texas once again.

UCLA Bruins: The Bruins are in the same boat as Georgia Tech, just on the west coast. They’re bad, 1-5 bad. Their lone win came in a game where they needed every one of their 67 points against Washington State.

UCLA probably won’t win more than 3 games for a second straight season. If one of those is against a common Notre Dame opponent, that’s definitely not going to help make the schedule look better. UCLA plays both USC and Stanford, and those are games that unfortunately, you’re going to want to root for your rival if it means helping Notre Dame’s playoff chances.