Notre Dame football: 4 best potential College Football Playoff matchups

Notre Dame football: 4 best potential College Football Playoff matchups

Cincinnati Bearcats

Yes, Cincinnati is in the the Group of 5 (though, by several metrics the AAC is a top five conference in college football), but with a little chaos they have a legitimate shot of making the College Football Playoff. Yes, it may require a last second game being scheduled to put their resume over the top, but we are a couple of upsets away from the Brian Kelly Bowl live from the College Football Playoff.

Here’s the thing about Cincinnati and the AAC as a whole. Cincinnati is modeled after a B1G 10 team, largely due to geography and coach Luke Fickell’s Ohio State background. Most of the AAC is more like the Big 12, though. UCF, Memphis, SMU and most of the rest of the conference play with wide open offenses that put up tons of points. This counter-style has worked for Cincinnati because their secondary is elite and they can blow most AAC defensive lines off the ball.

Notre Dame, however, doesn’t throw the ball around like an AAC school. They want to run the ball, and while Cincinnati’s front seven is tough, they’re not tougher than the Irish offensive line. On offense the Bearcats want to win the line of scrimmage and let quarterback Desmond Ridder make good decisions on his RPO. He can’t, however, throw the ball downfield. For Clark Lea and the athletic Notre Dame defense this should be easy enough to contain.

The Irish have both the athletes and scheme to excel against a dangerous Cincinnati team.