Notre Dame Now Plays The College Football Playoff Waiting Game

The Irish finished the season winning 10 games all by double digits, but can they get in the playoff?

Nov 29, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Luke Talich (28) runs for a touchdown on a fake punt against the Stanford Cardinal during the second quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Now, Notre Dame waits for the final bracket reveal

Notre Dame's 2025 regular-season body of work is complete. The Irish finished with a 10-2 record, in which they won each of the final 10 games of the year all by double digits. What comes next? A stressful waiting game that includes a CFP ranking release Tuesday evening, leading to the final rankings Sunday afternoon after conference championship games are played.

Notre Dame had an unfortunate start to the season, and everyone knows that. The Irish struggled to comfortably ease CJ Carr into action against Miami in his first game as a starter and took a few games to settle in defensively under new DC Chris Ash. These issues led directly to a 0-2 start, which put the Irish behind the CFP eight-ball in early September for the second straight season.

To Notre Dame's credit, it bounced back after the rough start to win all remaining games, edging its way back into the CFP bracket projections. Now it's a matter of staying there, which is beyond the Irish's control.

What mattered in Tuesday's CFP Ranking Release

There are a few big things that didn't happen on Tuesday. Could the Irish overtake Oklahoma? Yeah, but they didn't. On the flip side, they dropped.

Yes, the Sooners are a 10-2 SEC team, but they've looked shaky as of late and struggled to beat an LSU team playing for nothing that had no head coach at the time at home to finish off the regular season at home, while Notre Dame has cruised to victory in all recent contests.

The committee still has a buffer between the Irish and Miami with BYU at 11, but that's not enough. It would have been good to further distance itself from the head-to-head debate. I didn't expect this move to happen, but it should've been a bigger discussion instead of the Irish or Alabama argument.

Notre Dame fans are also Texas Tech and Georgia fans this week

Now that Notre Dame didn't move ahead of Oklahoma, the Irish will need Texas Tech to beat BYU in the Big 12 Championship game so that both teams don't make the field, making room for one less at-large bid.

The Irish could also use some help in the form of Georgia beating Alabama in the SEC title game, taking the shine off the Crimson Tide after they just passed the Irish for the nine spot.

Make no doubt about it, this will be a stressful week for Irish fans. This is the cost of starting the season 0-2, and a tough lesson to be learned about controlling one's own destiny and what can happen once that power is lost.