Now that the Notre Dame football team has finished its regular season, it can only sit and watch and wait. While teams like Georgia and Alabama or BYU and Texas Tech will do battle in conference championship games, the Irish are reduced to politicking for a spot in the College Football Playoffs.
Head coach Marcus Freeman understands the assignment. Not long after the Irish dispatched the Stanford Cardinal, Freeman made his case for why his team should be in the CFP as an at-large bid despite starting the season 0-2.
"Who are the best teams now?" Freeman said following Notre Dame's 49-20 win against Stanford. "Not Week 1 -- now. It's hard to argue we aren't one of those teams."
Marcus Freeman argues Notre Dame is peaking at the perfect time
"You're talking about a team that is playing as well as anyone right now," Freeman added. "Won 10 straight games, all of them by double-digit points."
The pitch Freeman is making comes amid long debates about the Irish being ranked over Miami in the CFP Committee's list. Plenty of insiders and analysts have raged about the Hurricanes being ranked behind ND because they won in the season opener. However, the committee has pointed out early, and often, that head-to-head is one metric but not the only one.
Freeman's comments in fact, echo those of the committee that has talked about consistency. It's hard to be more consistent as the season comes to a head with 10 straight victories.
For now, both the coaches' poll and the AP agree with the Notre Dame head coach that the Irish are better than Miami. Tuesday night will be important, but the final results won't really be known until Selection Sunday.