Notre Dame Football: What 12-team playoff would have meant to 2000 Irish
By Andrew Hall
Bob Davie’s 2000 Notre Dame Football team would have earned a berth to an expanded 12-team tournament.
The College Football Playoff working group proposed a 12-team playoff that would triple the size of the current championship format and provide access to schools historically blocked playing for the ultimate prize. Since the inception of the BCS in 1998, the Notre Dame football program has played in the “championship” three times: 2012 (BCS), 2018 (CFP), 2020 (CFP).
The new system would prevent the Independent Irish from landing in the top 4; reserved for the top conference champions. However, the Notre Dame football team receives more chances to land in the playoff. Here is the first instance of when the Irish would have made an expanded playoff in the BCS era, the year 2000.
Notre Dame Football: What 12-team playoff would have meant to 2000 Irish
2000 Notre Dame Football Team
This iteration of the Notre Dame football team utilized special teams and defense to finish the regular season, 9-2. The squad epitomized head coach Bob Davie whose teams were characterized by stout defenses, playmaking special teams, and anemic offenses.
For large stretches, the Irish offense went dormant but was bailed out by kick returns from Julius Jones and punt returns from Joey Getherall.
Notre Dame finished No. 11 in the final BCS rankings. The Irish would have narrowly made the playoff. Ironically, Notre Dame would have played the Oregon State Beavers, their eventually Fiesta Bowl opponent.
The twelve teams would have earned playoff births as follows:
- Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion)
- Florida State (ACC Champion)
- Miami (FL) (Big East Champion)
- Washington (Pac 12 Champion)
- Virginia Tech
- Oregon State
- Florida (SEC Champion)
- Nebraska
- Kansas State
- Oregon
- Notre Dame
- Purdue (Big Ten Champion)
The 2000 College Football season only featured a few conference championship games (Big 12, SEC). Several conferences had co-championships like the Big Ten. However, Purdue, for example, represented the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl. Therefore, they were the final conference champion for this list.
Notre Dame obviously struggled with a talented Oregon State squad in the Fiesta Bowl, losing 41-9. The Irish no doubt would have been bounced if they traveled to Corvallis.
It probably would have ended worse than the 41-9 thrashing in the desert.
This tournament would be extremely intriguing. One of the main reasons: Michael Vick. Vick suffered an injury against Pittsburgh and was unable to play in the Hokies’ biggest game against Miami (FL). The final four teams in this scenario probably would have been: Oklahoma playing Virginia Tech and Florida State battling Oregon State.
Most likely, the Sooners end up in the championship with the Seminoles but teams 1 through 9 were very close in quality in the year 2000. For the Irish, it would have been a failure on a big stage, the beginning of a major trend.