Kirk Herbstreit sees Notre Dame as a lock for College Football Playoff if it wins out

Winners of six straight to now be 6-2, Notre Dame came in at No. 10 this week in the initial ranking of the College Football Playoff Top 25. That was the latest evidence to all, including Kirk Herbstreit, that, if they win out at 10-2, the Fighting Irish will finish in the field for the College Football Playoff.

Herbstreit reacted along with Joey Galloway to those initial playoff rankings after they were released on Tuesday night. He felt, when it came to Notre Dame’s chances to be in the bracket by season’s end, that their ranking at No. 10 is proof that, if the Fighting Irish do get to those 10 straight wins to end the year, they’ll be in the CFP.

“Notre Dame, sitting there at 6-2. They’re number ten in the rankings. I said this after they lost to Texas A&M. If they win their next, what, ten games, they finish 10-2 and no conference championship? It’d be very hard for me to imagine Notre Dame not being in,” said Herbstreit. “And they’ve, since then, won six in a row.”

As we all know, Notre Dame started at 0-2 with two losses by a combined four points at Miami and to Texas A&M. However, based on the quality of those losses, the Fighting Irish still have their chance to make the playoff if they win out and make a case as an at-large at 10-2. Now, having played essentially elimination football ever since, Notre Dame is over halfway there with six consecutive wins, all against quality-enough competition by an average margin of 24 points, as they enter November.

Herbstreit circled the next two games as the most important ones left for the Irish, starting this weekend against Navy before going to No. 24 Pittsburgh, which will be coming off a bye after also making the cut in the CFP Top 25, to try to get to 8-2. He thinks then, if it can do that, Notre Dame should be able to get to that threshold of 10-2 and, with that, become a lock as an at-large for the College Football Playoff.

“They’ve got Navy coming up this week, they go Pitt, they’ve got Syracuse, and they finish on the road with Stanford. If they get through these next two? Navy is always – you know, their system creates a little bit of concern. And then, on the road at Pitt. You get through those two, Notre Dame finishes 10-2, and they’ll probably end up, I don’t know, 8? 7, 8, 9 – somewhere in that range,” Herbstreit said. “But, they are an absolute lock, if they win their next four games, that they’re in the playoff.”