probable - Georgia beats Bama by 9+. Hopeful - Houston beats Cinci.
ND is third and doesn't play Georgia.

in the old bowl system. We could almost choose our opponent and bowl, except of course for the Rose Bowl.

I suppose we'll see soon enough where they fall in the latest CFP rankings, but if they win out, they're locked into the Rose Bowl. Ergo, the Fiesta Bowl means a loss in the Pac-12 championship game. Not sure if they'll have a high enough ranking to merit an Access Bowl selection if that occurs.

So we are fiesta if Cincy is in and Peach if Cincy is out.

Wanted to beat NDHarvey to the punch.

The 1 major change in BK 2.0 is that he has avoided losses like NW, Navy (2x) , USF, et al that were a hallmark of BK 1.0. Admittedly, he came too close for comfort earlier this year.

Given the dry rot that has overtaken the Trees as this season has unfolded, losing this 1 would be a major setback for ND that none of us see happening.

A booty-tang of a bowl game.

Just because people predict a certain outcome doesn't make it a "likely" outcome. At this point there are too many vairables still in play to even make a determination on what is likely.

I think there's a pretty confined universe of what is possible:

Our options are basically Playoff, Peach, or Fiesta. The pool of potential Peach and Fiesta Bowl teams are:

-ACC Champ (Pitt, Wake, Clemson, NCSU all still possible)*
-G5 Champ*
-Notre Dame
-Big 10 #2/#3 (depending on whether a Big 10 team makes the playoffs) (UM/OSU/Wisconsin/MSU all in play)
-SEC #3/#4 (depending on whether SEC gets one or two teams in the playoffs) (Ole Miss or A&M seems likely here)
-Big 12 #2/#3 (depending on whether a Big 12 team makes the playoffs) (Ok St, Oklahoma, and Baylor all in play)

*Means the team is guaranteed to be in the pool if they don't make the playoffs.

Factors at play:
-The ACC champ is most likely to go to the Peach Bowl.
-Also, the Peach Bowl got saddled with the G5 team (Cincy) last year, so if the G5 team is Cincinnati especially, Cincy they'd try to avoid sending them to the Peach again. If Cincy makes the playoffs, this constraint is less impactful, but could still come into play.

If Cincy is in the mix, we're almost certainly playing the ACC Champ. Clemson is the only interesting opponent there.

If Cincy is in the playoff, we could land in the Fiesta. I think a matchup against Michigan or either of the Oklahomas would be fun there.

If anything, it's looking more and more "likely" that Cincinnati makes the playoffs - which would put Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

But yeah, Cincinnati could win out - but Alabama could beat Georgia and the B12 champ could have one loss, and the Bearcats could get pushed to #5.

So yes, too many variables still in play to make a sound prediction on ND's bowl game destination.

If it comes down to 11-2 Alabama and 11-1 Notre Dame, which team do you think will get the nod?

I honestly don't know but I don't like our chances.

I think the, "Alabama is out if they lose to Georgia" crowd might be both surprised and disappointed by the ultimate final four.

But again, just a guess.

Michigan will almost certainly be slotted to the Rose Bowl as the highest ranked non-playoff B1G team. They could fall to the Fiesta in the extremely unlikely scenario that Wisconsin wins the B1G, pushing a 2-loss OSU out of the playoffs and into the Rose. But in that situation, ND is more likely to sneak into the playoff than to face Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl

for some of the New Year's Day bowls we got to in the early 90s.

I know we beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl, but we were pretty fortunate to land there based on our regular season ranking (#18).

However, we definitely had no business being in the Fiesta Bowl vs. Colorado after the 1994 season. (we were 6-4-1 and unranked)

because they like to sell seats. Watch the half-empty bowl games now. If they go to a
12 team playoff, wait’ll you see the empty seats then.

He did little to enhance ND’s positioning for anything short of the playofff. I

If the Big 12 champ makes the Playoff, then Bama goes to the Sugar Bowl, in which case the Orange Bowl might take Ole Miss to face the ACC champ in the Peach Bowl, leaving ND to face the 3rd place Big 10 team or Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.

With Bama, I suspect they'll get leapfrogged by Ohio State on Tuesday, and will remain #3 behind the winner of the OSU-UM showdown. It's hard to see them moving down only one spot from #3 to #4 if they have a decisive loss to Georgia and either OU or OSU have back to back wins over top 10ish teams.

[Edit: Ignore the reference to the Orange Bowl in the first paragraph. I meant to refer to the Peach Bowl, and it was an atrociously written sentence regardless.]

He might have meant to refer to the Peach Bowl

A game against Pitt would be a snooze fest matchup.

Unless Pitt can bring back Tony Dorsett, not very interesting.

The board might rightfully need to be shut down until after the Spring game if that were to happen.

Clemson plays non-conference vs South Carolina so that result doesn't matter. But, if Boston College upsets Wake Forest and North Carolina beats NC State, then Clemson will play Pitt in the ACC championship game. My money would be on Dabo/Venables in that situation.

If we played Clemson in the Peach Bowl, there would be little national attention from winning the game even though the Tigers are starting to at least somewhat resemble the powerhouse they were the previous 6 years, and plenty of ridicule for a defeat.

Wake losing to BC would be a huge upset and not likely. BC doesn't match up well. While Wake's defense has been suspect all year, their offense still allows them to outscore most everyone. Their big weakness is against teams that can a) pressure Sam Hartman and b) have a powerful running attack. Neither of these are strengths of BC. Wake's two losses were to UNC and Ty Chandler running all over Wake's defense. Despite that, Wake had an 18 point lead later in the third Q. Clemson had both.

Clemson is a team full of ridiculous talent, and it was only a matter of time before that talent figured out how to start playing together. Their defensive line found a new higher gear against Wake, and will only get better. Likely too little too late for them but if the ACC championship game was in their control I would not bet against them. They remind me of the duke or North Carolina basketball teams with a lot of freshmen five star talent, have a bit of a rough regular season but by the time they hit the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament their talent Find an extra gear and they work together as a team. But I think it’s too late for them. NC State might lose to UNC but I don't see Wake losing to BC at all

While playing Clemson for the 3rd time in 2 years isnt that appealing, I'll take it over Pitt or Wake Forest.

THere is a chance of a beat down tho.

We played them twice last year and three times in the last three years, including postseason. We also have them on the schedule in each of the next two seasons.

Under that scenario, I don't see how the Committee schedules ND-Clemson in a non-playoff NY6 bowl. The only way would be if Cincinnati were the only other option, but I think they'd put Clemson against Cincinnati in that event.

I would definitely rather face Clemson than those other two.

They're already going to take a tumble in the CFP rankings this week, and if they take another loss they will fall out of NY6 ranking territory.

I'm sure someone can look up if ND and Oregon have ever played, but certainly havent in the 30+ years I've been watching ND.

coverage. They had to make a last minute drive for the game tying FG.

I was a freshman at ND at the time. The game was played over Fall Break, so I was listening from home.

4-0 start.

never having had an abusive sister, let alone a non-abusive one.