Notre Dame needed several different things to happen in order to breath easy and go into Selection Sunday confident it would make the College Football Playoff. All of those things happened. Boise State blew out UNLV in the Mountain West title game. Texas Tech blew out BYU and then Georgia blew out Alabama.
It's that last game that might have pushed the Irish from nervous about Sunday night, to expecting to get a berth. The Crimson Tide entered Saturday with very good odds to get an at-large bid. However, they were absolutely dominated by Georgia's offense and defense and eventually lost 28-7. The Tide, as a it were turned. Turned into a pumpkin.
When Alabama was moved up to No. 9 and jumped Notre Dame last week, the CFP committee pretended it was because they beat Auburn, which made little to no sense. In reality, it was about making sure that if Alabama had to be dropped after the SEC Title Game, they would drop to No. 10, move the Irish up to No. 9 and still make the field.
Notre Dame is staring a big in the College Football Playoff in the face after Alabama blowout loss
With the Crimson Tide now getting handed a 28-7 loss, it feels like they could get dropped even more.
There is a chance that Alabama could miss the playoffs entirely. Though the precedent that would set isn't one that the CFP Committee likely wants to set. Somehow pretending Notre Dame should miss the playoffs despite doing nothing but seeing their resume get stronger should also be near impossible.
Vegas agrees with that assessment. Following Alabama's blowout, Notre Dame now sits at -1200 to make the playoffs according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Alabama, meanwhile is now at just -340 after having much better odds earlier in the day. The odd team out is still Miami who now sits at +160 to make the CFP.