Notre Dame vs Alabama For The Title In Latest Bowl Projections
Notre Dame earned an impressive 31-17 road victory over North Carolina, who went into the game ranked 19th in the College Football Playoff rankings. The victory impressed several ESPN college football writers.
In this week's updated bowl projections, ESPN staff writer Kyle Bonagura has Notre Dame slated to win a playoff game and meet Alabama for the national title. Bonagura has Notre Dame set to play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, which is one of the semi-final games. That is who he had the Irish slated to play previously, but now he has Notre Dame beating Ohio State and playing the Tide for the title.
In the same article, senior writer Mark Schlabach has Notre Dame slated to play Alabama in the first round and losing. He has the Tide and Clemson playing for the title. Based on his pairings its clear that Schlabach has Notre Dame losing to Clemson in the ACC title game and getting a four-seed.
It also means he has Ohio State, a team that can now play at most seven games, seeded higher than Notre Dame.
In the weekly staff/analysts playoff projections, the Irish rose up in the eyes of several analysts. Fourteen analysts made their playoff projections, and the Irish were a two seed in 13 of those projections and the No. 1 seed in another. David M. Hale is who bumped Notre Dame up to a one seed.
Four different writers left Ohio State out of their top four.
College football reporter Chris Low continues to have Notre Dame second in his updated power rankings:
"The Irish remained unbeaten Friday with a 31-17 road victory against North Carolina to run their FBS-best winning streak to 15 games. Two more regular-season wins against Syracuse and Wake Forest will likely be enough to get the Irish into the College Football Playoff, even if they were to lose a rematch with Clemson in the ACC championship game. Notre Dame's defense was stifling Friday after North Carolina scored a pair of first-quarter touchdowns. The Tar Heels managed just 58 total yards in the second half."
To comment below be sure to sign up for a FREE Disqus account, which you can get HERE.
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content, our premium message board and gets you a FREE subscription to Sports Illustrated! Click on the link below for more
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes.
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel.
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Follow me on Parler: @BryanDriskell
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
