Thanks to a blowout win over Navy on Saturday night and a shake-up of the teams ahead of Notre Dame in the second College Football Playoffs rankings, the path through the playoffs has changed up a bit this week.
Last week, the Fighting Irish were the No. 10 seed and were slated to go through BYU before potentially taking on Indiana in the second round. This week, Notre Dame has jumped up one spot in the rankings, to No. 9, and that still has them going on the road in the first round, but it will be going farther west.
Notre Dame has a road to the semis that goes through the Big Ten in the latest CFP rankings
The latest rankings have Marcus Freeman and company headed out west to Oregon in the first round of the second College Football Playoffs rankings. Should Notre Dame manage to beat the Ducks in that first-round tilt, they would then face off against Ohio State as the No. 1 overall seed.
The current College Football Playoff Bracket looks like this pic.twitter.com/781CeVeU5E
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 12, 2025
Should the Irish get to the semifinals for the second straight season, they would take on either Alabama, Georgia, or South Florida, depending on how the bracket above them shakes out.
Certainly, a CFP opening game against Oregon would be favorable to the Irish, considering the Ducks don't look as powerful offensively as they have in the last few years. Granted, heading to Eugene will be a task.
The big question now is whether a win on Saturday over Pittsburgh might allow the Irish to slide into a spot where they're hosting the first round rather than traveling. After all, the Panthers are ranked as well.
With the way that teams are matching up towards the end of the season, and provided Notre Dame football can keep winning, there's an opening to get as high as No. 7 or even No. 6 before all is said and done.