Notre Dame Football: Why the Irish should be in a better bowl game
By Matt Clark
It was announced that the 15th ranked Notre Dame Irish will get the distinct honor of playing a five loss Iowa State team in the Camping World Bowl on December 28th. Following the announcement, the collective sound of rage and anger amongst Irish fans could be witnessed, as most felt that this team deserved much more than a matchup against a five loss unranked opponent. Credence can be given to the disappointment and anger that Notre Dame fans have over the Camping World Bowl selection.
Notre Dame has been stuck in ranking purgatory since getting embarrassed in a 45-14 blowout loss to Michigan in the Big House. Despite the fact that, the Irish were able to right the ship and win out following the loss to the Wolverines, often times in dominating fashion.
After dominating every game since their last second 21-20 thrilling win against Virginia Tech immediately following the loss to Michigan, Notre Dame has been ranked either 15th or 16th in the polls.
The lack of love for Notre Dame in the rankings served as a precursor for the College Football Playoff selection committee’s indifference towards them when determining the matchups for the college bowl games. Despite looking like one of the more dominant teams in college football for most of the year, the Irish get the distinct honor of playing a five-loss Iowa State team. Not exactly what fans of Notre Dame expected after watching them hang with 5th ranked Georgia on the road until the last drive of the game.
Notre Dame deserved better than this. It is an embarrassing slap in the face for a team that had one bad loss against a ranked opponent, on the road, in inclement weather, in addition to their close loss against Georgia in a hostile road game. The selection committee seemed more forgiving of other the flaws of other teams such as Georgia, who lost to an unranked 4-8 South Carolina team, a Utah team who lost to a then unranked USC team (who the Irish defeated), Baylor — who played only two games against ranked opponents all year and lost them both, and Oregon, who lost to a 6-5 unranked Arizona State team.
Instead, the committee chose to punish Notre Dame for losing to a Top 15 team. Their relegation to a lowly Camping World Bowl game serves as a clear message that the selection committee didn’t feel the Irish were a legitimate team, despite their Top 15 rankings. Instead, Notre Dame joins 11th ranked Utah, 19th ranked Boise State and 20th ranked Appalachian State as the only Top 20 teams to not playing a ranked opponent in a bowl game.
In comparison to the likes of Utah, Boise State and Appalachian State, Notre Dame played four ranked opponents this season, while the other three schools played a combined two ranked opponents. Both of those were by Utah, who won against a then 17th ranked Arizona State and who were drubbed in the PAC-12 conference championship game by 6th ranked Oregon. In addition, Utah had the 45th ranked strength of schedule, while Boise State had the 94th and Appalachian State had the 113th hardest strength of schedule in college football this year.
By comparison, Notre Dame had the 38th hardest strength of schedule, so the records and rankings of these three teams pale in comparison to that of the Irish, making it understandable why they are not playing ranked opponents.
Unfortunately for the Irish, the fact that they do not belong to a conference, coupled with the fact that they were unable to move up in the rankings despite playing absolutely dominant football for the past four weeks left them in the precarious position of not being an eligible candidate for any of the larger bowls. Instead, the pain from the embarrassing loss to Michigan will continue to plague Notre Dame and its fans this season, as they wait with little anticipation to watch the Irish take on the 7-5 unranked Iowa State Cyclones on December 28th.
Unfortunately, this game presents zero benefit to Notre Dame. If the Irish win against Iowa State, the talking heads will state that is what they should have done. If they lose to Iowa State, then there will be loud cries about how Notre Dame was a fraud and didn’t deserve to be in a bowl game of bigger magnitude anyhow.
The situation is less than desirable for head coach Brian Kelly and his squad. This situation could have been avoided simply by not getting blown out by Michigan on the road. Perhaps that is the one positive that can be gleaned from this outcome. The Irish players who are returning to South Bend to play in future seasons will have seen the impact of not showing up for a big game like Michigan.
Regardless of how the game plays out, this Notre Dame football team is much better than their rankings suggest and deserved to be playing a more formidable team as a result. Unfortunately, that is not how things played out. Instead, Irish fans will have to watch the season capped off in a lackluster matchup against Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl.
Hopefully, the sting of this situation serves as motivation next season, as the Irish are expected to have an extremely talented team. Perhaps next year they can win the big games needed to vault them into College Football Playoff contention.