Where will Notre Dame Football play in the posteason?

Notre Dame Football earned another trip to the postseason. Where will the Irish play? Who will be their opponent in the bowl game?

At 9-3, Notre Dame Football is bowl-eligible for the 16th consecutive season and will play in its 14th bowl game in the same stretch. Despite not playing in the College Football Playoff or a New Year’s Six game, a bowl win means a sixth 10-win season in seven years. So, where will the Irish play this postseason?

Notre Dame football in The Brian Kelly Bowl?

One of two projections has Notre Dame Football going to Tampa Bay to play LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl. If that name seems unfamiliar, you might know the bowl by its former name, The Outback Bowl. Playing the Tigers means Notre Dame and its former coach, Brian Kelly, going toe to toe. Moreover, Kelly brought now-head coach Marcus Freeman to South Bend.

Freeman is not obtuse with the storylines if the Irish play the Tigers in Tampa. “I know there would be some storylines with Coach Kelly and the history of Notre Dame,” Freeman said Monday on a Zoom call with reporters. “It would probably get a lot of views.”

LSU is not the only SEC team the Irish could face in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Mississippi is another possibility, though the Citrus Bowl has dibs on the top SEC team not in the New Year’s Six. The Rebels are most likely bound for the Citrus or the NY6.

That leaves the Tigers or Wisconsin, another team projected to play the Irish.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl?

Formerly known as the Cheese-It Bowl, Notre Dame could be slated for a rematch against Oklahoma State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl if they don’t play in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The Cowboys and Irish squared off in Coach Freeman’s debut in the Fiesta Bowl.

Bowl games usually don’t look at matchups, but Brian Kelly versus his old Notre Dame football team might be too much to pass up for the bowl representatives in Tampa.