Early Bowl Projection: Notre Dame To The Peach Bowl
If the 2020 college football season goes the way 247Sports believes it will, Notre Dame will get a chance for a rematch in a major bowl. 247Sports college football writer Brad Crawford released his initial bowl projections for the 2020 season, and he has Notre Dame squaring off against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Peach Bowl.
The Peach Bowl is one of the New Year’s Six Bowls, so if the Irish did make it to this bowl it would give the program a chance to win its first “major bowl” since it beat Texas A&M in the 1994 Cotton Bowl.
Notre Dame and Georgia have faced each other twice in the last three seasons, with the Bulldogs beating the Irish 20-19 in 2017 and 23-17 last season. Playing in the Peach Bowl - which is held in Atlanta - would give Georgia a location advantage, but Notre Dame battled the Bulldogs well on their home turf last fall.
The Irish are 0-3 all-time against the Bulldogs.
Crawford mentioned the intriguing possibility of Notre Dame playing in the Orange Bowl. Here is what he wrote:
“The word: It'll be interesting to see how next season's Orange Bowl shakes out given Notre Dame is on the table if the Irish are the highest-ranked non-Playoff qualifier here. In a message to 247Sports, Orange Bowl VP of Communications Larry Wahl said, "in non-semifinal years, our game is always the ACC champion (unless the champion is in the Playoff, in which case we take the next highest ranked team) against the highest ranked, non-champion from the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame (after the Playoff, Rose and Sugar are set). So, Notre Dame can only be in our game if they are higher ranked than the highest ranked available SEC and Big Ten teams.”
Crawford’s current Orange Bowl projection is Miami and Penn State.
Eight of Notre Dame’s 12 opponents were projected in bowl games.
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Navy vs. Iowa State
Belk Bowl: Wake Forest vs. South Carolina
Citrus Bowl: Wisconsin vs. LSU
Redbox Bowl: Stanford vs. Indiana
Military Bowl: Pitt vs. Cincinnati
Sugar Bowl (Playoff): Clemson vs. Alabama
Holiday Bowl: Louisville vs. Washington
Alamo Bowl: USC vs. Texas
Arkansas, Western Michigan, Duke and Georgia Tech were not slated to qualify for bowl games.
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