Notre Dame football back in the thick of the playoff race

The Notre Dame football season hasn’t gone as expected. However, it could end up basically the way the Fighting Irish have been hoping since the winter.

Marcus Freeman and company were accused of ending their own season before it really began after they lost their second game of the season to Northern Illinois. The Irish fell enough in the polls after that loss that some people wondered if they’d already killed their chance of a playoff.

However, despite the Notre Dame football team looking far from perfect, they’ve been good enough to win three straight. And after beating a ranked Louisville team, they’re all the wayp to fourteenth in the latest AP Top 25 Poll.

That of course means that the Irish have a real shot at getting to the playoffs after all. What it probably means is they don’t have much of a shot of hosting a playoff game. But in the first year of the 12-team field, just getting in feels like it’s an experiment.

Notre Dame football back in the fight for the playoffs

The remaining schedule is one reason why it seems likely they’ll be safely back inside the playoff seedings towards the end of the season. Then there’s the matchup with longtime rival USC, who is forging their own run to an at-large bid.

Those two teams face off on the last weekend of the season and it seems likely the winner will be going to the postseason while the loser will have to worry about falling out of contention.