Notre Dame Completes 10 Game Win Streak, But CFP Uncertainty Reigns

The Irish ended the season strong, but will have to wait a week to learn of their College Football Playoff fate.

Nov 29, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Aneyas Williams (22) runs for a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

A grinding week of football ends in an Irish win over Stanford 49-20

This week had a very unique feel to it for the greater Notre Dame community. With the Notre Dame game starting so unusually late at night, the Irish faithful had two entire days' worth of games to watch and root for outcomes that would boost Notre Dame's CFP ranking.

One by one, the games went by, and the Irish got no help at all from teams ahead of them, and Texas A&M's loss to Texas was a negative outcome, not just neutral.

Finally, after digesting the frustration from the lack of any help from fellow CFP competitors, it was Notre Dame's turn to shine, impress, and push Jeremiyah Love closer to the Heisman and the Irish record books.

Instead, Love was injured early in the game, and Notre Dame failed to dominate Stanford in the second half, leading some to worry about how this win will play for the CFP committee.

In an ideal world, there would be nothing but celebration for Notre Dame completing a 10-game winning streak to end the season. But things are more complicated than that. No matter how thrilled Irish fans are with this impressive run of wins, the celebration, rightly or wrongly depending on who you ask, feels like it's on pause pending the final CFP rankings.

Leaving California with the Legends Trophy ☘️#GoIrish☘️ | @Gatorade pic.twitter.com/oRxzGTsEAx

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 30, 2025

We judge Notre Dame more harshly than the CFP committee does

I completely understand much of the Irish fans' frustration surrounding this game. Once Love got injured, it felt like some energy left the building. And Notre Dame didn't play a particularly strong second half of football and didn't cover the spread. But it won by 29 points on the road as far away from South Bend as possible, late at night, to complete a 10-game win streak. This is impressive.

Sometimes I feel like a team's fan and media base can judge performances much harsher than outside observers do, in this case, the CFP committee. I don't see how this game hurts Notre Dame's standing in the CFP.

Would another touchdown in a game that was over in the first quarter make the Irish CFP worthy? It almost feels to me like there is some overthinking going on.

The reality of this weekend's slate of games is that a lot happened, but not a lot changed in terms of Notre Dame's CFP standing. Will that hold through conference title week? The entire country waits to find out. But for now, there's a lot to be proud of and celebrate about this regular season.