Can Notre Dame Still Make the College Football Playoff By Winning Out?

It's been a rough start for the Fighting Irish, but win ten straight, and everything should be okay.

Aug 31, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman reacts during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Notre Dame's quest for an undefeated season obviously ended after losing its season opener to No. 10 Miami two weeks ago. However, its College Football Playoff hopes are still far from over.

The Miami Hurricanes beat Notre Dame with a game winning sack!

FINAL SCORE: 27-24 #MiamivsNotreDame pic.twitter.com/IDCSrLvVKt

— The Sideline Mic (@SidelineMicCFB) September 1, 2025

But now the hot topic is whether or not Notre Dame has to win out to make the CFP? The answer was no before the Texas A&M loss, and now it's really a concern, even after dropping the game in such a tough - and controversial - fashion.

But now there's no margin for error.

To put a silver lining to the loss, if the second one was going to happen, it's better for Notre Dame to have lost sooner rather than later.

Georgia experienced this first-hand back in 2023 when the undefeated team lost to Alabama in the SEC Title Game by a field goal and had to settle for an Orange Bowl appearance against Florida State.

Obviously, that's when the CFP consisted of only four teams, but still, the premise is somewhat similar. Losing later in the season is much worse than losing earlier. The College Football Playoff committee has liked hot teams that finish the season on a roll.

There's no doubt Boise State losing its season opener to South Florida hurts Notre Dame's CFP stock moving forward, but the Fighting Irish still have enough tough teams on their schedule to make amends for the 0-2 start. North Carolina State, Navy, USC, Pitt, Purdue, and Arkansas isn't that nasty a slate, but it's not awful.

And if you're a Notre Dame fan, you should be rooting for these teams moving forward, especially USC.

USC has to play No. 12 Illinois and No. 14 Michigan before facing Notre Dame on October 18th, and if the Trojans were to beat both of them and face this Irish with a perfect 6-0 record, that would be just the type of spotlight game to get back on track with the voters.

As for who Notre Dame can't afford to lose to, that would be Stanford, Syracuse, and Boston College ...

Or anyone else the rest of the way.

The College Football Playoff committee will likely still take a 10-2 Fighting Irish team as long as they look the part the rest of the way. But 9-3? No way, no chance.

But now Notre Dame knows what it needs to do. Beat Purdue, and then keep banking wins and make it tough on the committee to say no.