Lets face it, to go undefeated is unlikely for any program, we need to obviously root for stanford and Michigan to be conference champs,
Essentially eliminating both conferences_with a one loss ND I look for both Alabama and Georgia to get in if they are both undefeated going into the sec championship game.
Leaving two spots for big 12, acc and Notre dame. Obviously it depends where our one loss would be, when and how ( blowout or close)
I'm reading below people actually considering this a possibility. This has almost never happened, unless you count some podunk Group of 5 school in the mix.
I get the Savannah paper every morning and I read about the Bulldogs. They have their own problems, and with four ranked opponents in a row, I highly doubt they run that gauntlet undefeated.
You're high if you think ND gets in with one loss especially considering there are no real high quality teams left on the schedule.
Of those three, only Michigan will likely be ranked by years end, once all games have been played. I called Michigan to the BIG 10 title game, even after we beat them. We need to win out to get into the playoff.
get in being undefeated. If that happens this year we may garner more respect next year to put us in a position where one loss would get us in as it does now with Alabama.
Exactly...Win out and it is a wrap...Lose one and you are not getting in...With the front 7 on Defense.. come out every game establishing the run......opens up the passing game..... this team is fast and has playmakers on both sides of the ball....no more passes across the field.... do not have to run wide...the TE position is opening up the offense... this team is big and fast... Claypool,Mack, Boykins....6'4"...
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BK might lose us 2 or 3 LoL
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but one loss
What are you smoking?
Enough with the dumb posts ok?
If we win out, we're in and you can take that to the bank.
But if we take an L we aren't getting in baring devine intervention.
With one loss a close one to Alabama
Write it down....they beat us out
Here's my take on the whole topic, with one major caveat that might make you uninterested in continuing the conversation.
I am extremely confident that if we finish undefeated and are still playing at a high level that passes the eyeball test, we will be in the playoff. However, here is my caveat...I am far far far less confident that we will actually finish undefeated and still be playing at a high level that passes the eyeball test. There have been so many seasons under Kelly where we looked good early on and then fizzled down the stretch, that it's almost impossible for me to imagine the same thing won't happen again.
Having said that, if we do go undefeated and are still looking the part, I only see one scenario where we don't get in and these are the four it would be in that scenario:
1) Georgia 13-0
2) Tosu 13-0
3) Bama 12-1 (close loss to GA in SEC championship)
4) Clemson 13-0
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5) ND 12-0
I know you think it would be the same result if Bama beat GA close, but I disagree because Bama is the only team that has looked so far and away better than everyone else that they could survive a loss and still get in over a major undefeated. IMO none of the other unbeatens have looked super elite and each of them have actually looked very human at times (especially Tosu). Also, the committee is human and they have seen ND play very close with GA and Clemson in the last couple years, so I don't think they would consider them superior to us enough to get in over us with a loss. Alabama on the other hand looks other worldly right now, and I the last memory of us vs them was a disaster.
End of the day it boils down to this, I know the committee has precepts that they are spos to go by and publicly they will always claim that is what they go by, because that's what they have to say publicly...but once they get behind closed doors I don't think they give a rat's ass about precepts, conference championships, SOS, etc.
They are just going to pick the teams they want, and spin the narrative however they have to in order to make their choice look justified. If we keep playing the way we have been recently, or even start playing better (which as I already said is unlikely in my eyes) then it will be a real easy spin for them to put 12-0 ND in over 12-1 GA, rather than having an instant reply of the SEC championship in "the first round" of the playoff, or an undefeated WVU who is the Champ in a down year in the Big 12 and doesn't play the kind of defense they think matches up well to compete in the playoff.
Ultimately it's all speculation and there is no 'fact' to what any of us say because they can pick whoever they want and we just have to live with it, but with as good as we've looked overall to my eyes and with some of the people you don't normally hear talking high about the Irish, talking high about em now, I think we'll be real high (maybe even #2 or 3) on the committee's list "IF" we are still playing lights out come the end of the season and are sporting a 12-0 record.
What is the most teams that have finished undefeated in a single season?
And it is really bad news if there are 2, 1 loss sec teams
4 unbeaten conference champs, especially from the conferences that would definitely bump us (SEC, B1G, and ACC).
But if between those 3 and the Big 12, they each had an undefeated champ, it would likely be between ND and the Big 12 champ for the 4th spot. If we fizzle out in November like in past years and look boring against lesser teams then yeah the Big 12 champ would probably get the nod, but if we keep playing like we have been and pass the eye test ND would probably get the nod.
And there isn't any 1 loss team that's getting in over this ND team if they're still unbeaten, so just get that outta your head.
Why are you so confident? You have no more basis than we do. Let alone Georgia beats Alabama in the SEC champ and Alabama has one loss
A one loss Alabama is better than ND
If there are 4 other undefeated conference champs and and undefeated ND, ND will not get in because one of the criteria is conference championships. This all things being equal, any team in consideration vis-a-vis will have a championship and ND won't. So ND would have to be clearly better than a conference champion and this year's SOS won't be helping us in that regard.
We'll likely never know because it is highly unlucky to have 5 undefeated teams at the end. And, in the end, we have no friends in that room and no one is going to be arguing for ND over any undefeated conference champ because the next year it could be them.
Agree...
If ND is undefeated they are in I should have stated... regardless of 13-0 conference champs...
WVU are all undefeated, and there is a one loss GA with the loss being a close game with Bama
And not letting homerism take over like so many on here do
Our schedule is weak....it's not helping
to get in over that/those teams.
The chief reason is along with the built in bias toward conference champions,(with the exception of possibly Clemson and the weakness in the ACC this year), the other undefeated conference champs will have equivalent, if not better, SOS.
As it is we need help from the teams we have already beaten even to beat out a one loss SEC runner up.
A voice of realism
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It wasn't targeted at you.
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garner the votes. ND one loss and out w/o a conference affiliation...
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