Marcus Freeman Explains Why Notre Dame Deserves a College Football Playoff Spot

It was more quick work by Notre Dame on Saturday night as it jumped out to a 28-0 first-half lead at Stanford before hitting cruise control and beating the Cardinal 49-20.

The win is the 10th straight for Notre Dame as it finishes the 2025 regular season 10-2, after an 0-2 start that had the masses of blue and gold supporters concerned.

Notre Dame ranked ninth in the College Football Playoff rankings this past week and after making things uninteresting against Stanford early, it's almost impossible to see the Irish dropping.

HERE COME THE IRISH ☘️#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/LmQXZkj4Ep
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 30, 2025

However, there are masses of social media warriors who seem to think Miami is suddenly going to pass the Irish because of the Hurricanes whipping of Pittsburgh to close the regular season.

I wrote about that in a couple of different forms on Saturday (Is Notre Dame Suddenly in Danger of Missing the CFP? and Miami Still Doesn't Deserve to Pass Notre Dame but ultimately, what does what I think really matter?

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was asked about Notre Dame's playoff case after the 49-20 victory, and here are his responses:

"You talk about a team that is probably playing as well as anyone right now, have won 10 straight games in a row, I think all of them by double-digit points, maybe. And you want the 12 best teams now. I mean, I know you have the conference champions and the Group of Five highest-ranked team, but you talk about who are the best teams now, not Week 1, now, and it’s hard to argue we aren’t one of those teams.”

“We are improving as much as any team in the country, right? And we have improved as much as anybody in the country. We’re playing as well as any team in the country. Ten straight wins by double-digit points. We have, to me, in my opinion, the best player in the country.

“That’s what you want. You want the best teams in the country now, right? Like, who’s the best teams for the playoffs right now? And I truly believe we’re one of them.”

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

The theme of Saturday regarding Notre Dame seemed to center on Miami. The usual suspects couldn't wait to try and claim that Miami's win over the Irish 13 weeks ago will now carry more weight for some reason, because Miami routed Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Never mind the fact that Notre Dame did the same thing two weeks ago, and did so without scoring in the final seconds to try and pad stats in Pittsburgh. If Notre Dame didn't get rewarded with a boost in rankings following it's drubbing of Pittsburgh, then why would Miami, who currently sits three spots behind Freeman's Fighting Irish?