Notre Dame at the Center of College Football Playoff's Biggest Drama

The Irish are more polarizing than ever as the fight over a CFP bid intensifies

Nov 15, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman (middle) leads the team onto the field to play the Pittsburgh Panthers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Notre Dame is an inconvenient problem for conference-dominated CFP

Notre Dame has always been polarizing in the world of college football. As a historically independent, non-conference-affiliated power, the Irish are often the target of the complaint de jour.

This is what happens when you are different: this is what happens when you forge your own path. And here we are again.

Tuesday night's CFP ranking release, which has the Irish dropping into the 10th spot, the last available at-large spot in the field, has fueled drama from coast to coast in what is now going to be a very stressful rest of the week for Notre Dame fans as they await the final CFP ranking reveal Sunday.

🔟 in the College Football Playoff Rankings#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/cRawHIe5p8

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 3, 2025

Wide range of potential CFP outcomes await Notre Dame

With Notre Dame now in the 10 spot, things could break a few different ways. First, if BYU beats Texas Tech, the Irish are out of the CFP field, as BYU and Texas Tech would both make it.

This means Miami would miss the field as well. If Texas Tech beats BYU, the Irish could make the field in the 10 spot or potentially be jumped by Miami, which would move up next to the Irish should BYU drop with a defeat, based on the head-to-head result.

It seems as though the CFP committee moved Alabama into the ninth spot to protect them should they lose to Georgia in the SEC title game.

There is no guarantee that Miami is poised to jump Notre Dame should BYU lose. It's also possible that with an Alabama loss, the Tide slide back down to 10, moving the Irish into the ninth spot, creating a buffer between Notre Dame and Miami for the committee.

The CFP committee is unreliable and cannot be trusted to be philosophically consistent. The Irish are in the danger zone; all there is to do now is stress and wait.

Notre Dame learns a stressful lesson the hard way

Even if Notre Dame makes the CFP field as the last at-large team after all of this drama, look at the stress, anxiety, and vitriol this situation has caused.

This is what happens when you no longer control your own destiny, and your fate is decided by other game outcomes and a random group of people in a hotel ballroom.

Moving forward, the Irish must figure out a way to get through the month of September in a better CFP position without their backs against the CFP wall and control their own outcome. This needs to be the next step for Marcus Freeman's maturing program.