Notre Dame Football Playoff Projections: Championship Game Bound?

After Notre Dame sent Stanford into the sun with a 58-7 victory this past weekend, it moved up to No. 2 in the AP Poll, as Texas fell to Oklahoma, dropping it from the top spot.

Now, the latest bowl projections for the week by national outlets are seemingly more convinced of Notre Dame, who has its biggest 2026 test to date this week at BYU.

Notre Dame stay unbeaten this weekend in Provo, Utah?

Or will the ghosts of 2004 come back and derail things again?

Continue to take care of business and Notre Dame will have a first round bye.

Drop a game and it'll be hosting a First Round playoff game.

Drop two and...we don't need to discuss that currently.

Sports Illustrated

Notre Dame actually fell in the Sports Illustrated CFP projections this week, as it now sits as the No. 3 seed. However, the projections call for Notre Dame to beat No. 6 Indiana and No. 2 Ohio State en route to playing No. 1 Georgia for the national championship.

CBS Sports

Surprise, surprise - CBS Sports doesn't have Notre Dame earning a First Round bye. Having followed bowl projections for far too long from doing this job, there isn't an outlet that bets against Notre Dame more than CBS Sports in regards to these.

Last year it wound up being the closest to right. After six weeks of action it has Notre Dame making the playoff as the No. 5 seed and playing host to No. 12 Boise State.

ESPN

The projections from ESPN both have Notre Dame getting a First Round bye and beating Alabama in the quarterfinals.

Bonagura, who has Notre Dame as the No. 2 seed, has it beating Miami in the Orange Bowl to earn a spot against Georgia for the title.

Schlabach has Notre Dame as the three seed, ultimately losing to No. 2 Miami in the semifinal.

College Football News

Pete Fiutak of College Football News is the biggest Notre Dame homer you'll find out there.

OK, that's a lie, but he does have Notre Dame as the No. 1 seed and playing No. 8 Indiana in the Cotton Bowl to open its postseason. He has the Irish beating the Hoosiers and No. 4 Miami before playing No. 2 Georgia in the national championship game.

Nick Shepkowski's Notre Dame Playoff Projection

It wound up being closer than I thought last week, but Georgia did get by Alabama to stay unbeaten. I've said for weeks that I like Georgia to have a perfect regular season and ultimately win the SEC championship, which would give it the No. 1 seed over a 12-0 Notre Dame team.

Nick Shepkowski's Notre Dame Projection: No. 2 Seed, College Football Playoff

From everything I've seen this year, Notre Dame and Georgia are the two best teams in the nation. The gap between them and everyone else isn't a huge one, but give me those two over the rest to date.

I expect Notre Dame and Georgia to both finish unbeaten, and I expect the Big Ten champion to end with at least one loss (Ohio State already has one, FYI).

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