Paul Finebaum makes Notre Dame's best case as a 2024 national championship contender

Going into the 2024 season, Notre Dame has high expectations with thoughts that a trip to the College Football Playoff and even a potential run at a national championship is on the mind of the Irish.

The question about whether or not Notre Dame can realistically make a national championship run came up on Get Up. There, analyst Paul Finebaum shared that he believes the best case scenario for the Irish is a run that makes them a national championship contender.

“The answer is yes but I would be surprised,” Paul Finebaum said. “There’s a couple of reasons. I think they’ve got the team and they’ve got the schedule during the regular season.”

Notre Dame, being independent of a conference, finds itself in a unique situation. The Irish can’t win a conference. Therefore, the Irish can’t get a first-round bye in the current 12-team College Football Playoff format. It’s an added challenge that Notre Dame will inherently face.

“Now, here’s where it gets interesting. They don’t have a conference championship game, which gives them time to rest, except because they don’t have a conference championship game, they have to play by the new CFP rules in the first round,” Finebaum said. “Probably at home, but it still puts them at a slight disadvantage to maybe some of the higher-ranked teams.”

The third year has been a massive one for Notre Dame coaches throughout history. In fact, with the exception of Knute Rockne, every coach that has won a national championship at Notre Dame won their first during their third season running the program, including Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz. For his part, Brian Kelly led the Irish to an unbeaten regular season before losing the BCS Championship in his third season. It’s now Marcus Freeman‘s third season as the head coach in South Bend.

Notre Dame has claimed 11 national championships in program history. Only one FBS school, Alabama, has claimed more than that. However, it’s now been since 1988 when the Irish last took home a national championship.

Heather Dinich makes the case for why Notre Dame will win a College Football Playoff game in 2024

Another ESPN insider who thinks highly of Notre Dame is Heather Dinich. As she explained on SportsCenter recently, Dinich believes Notre Dame is capable of winning a game in the College Football Playoff.

“This year will be different because in the third season under Marcus Freeman, they have done an excellent job with recruiting, with using the transfer portal, starting with quarterback Riley Leonard,” Dinich said.

“He’s got a lot of talent around him. And they return nine of 11 starters on a defense that ranked No. 7 in the country last year in scoring defense, and that talent – just how loaded is this roster – 11 projected draft picks in 2025. The only other teams in the country that have more are Georgia and Ohio State. So this is a team that can really have a special season under Marcus Freeman. But they’ve gotta keep Riley Leonard healthy.”