Notre Dame football facing first round exit in latest playoff projections

By almost all accounts, the Notre Dame football team is headed to the College Football Playoffs this year. The part that seems to be up for debate, is what the Fighting Irish will do once they get there.

Some experts think they could fall just short of the semi-finals. However, a brand new prediction believes that while Riley Leonard and company are going to be one of the best teams in the sport, they won’t be among the cream of the crop.

On3 has released it’s official College Football Playoffs projections and it believes that the Notre Dame football program won’t be making it past the first round. It’s officially a projection that should get Irish fans angry, but it also shows just how difficult it’s going to be to really make some noise, even if they make the postseason.

Notre Dame football losing in first round of playoffs 

On3’s projections see the Irish being the 10th seed and facing off against 7th seeded Alabama. They also see the Crimson Tide beating Notre Dame.

Here’s the entire first round layout as their experts have predicted them:

​​No. 5 Texas vs. No. 12 Boise State

Winner: Texas

No. 6 Oregon vs. No. 11 Missouri

Winner: Oregon

No. 7 Alabama vs. No. 10 Notre Dame

Winner: Alabama

No. 8 Ole Miss vs. No. 9 Michigan

Winner: Ole Miss

With Marcus Freeman and company sitting out the rest of the playoffs, how does the site see everything else unfolding? It turns out that its experts believe the national championship will feature the Georgia Bulldogs against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

In the end the SEC squad will topple the Big Ten representative and return to the top of the college football world.

All that is plenty interesting. However, Notre Dame football’s big goals this season is to prove those projections wrong and make more noise in the CFB Playoffs than people expect.