David Pollack: Notre Dame must beat Louisville to save College Football Playoff hopes

Notre Dame may be one loss away from losing the chance to achieve its postseason hopes. On Wednesday, David Pollack emphasized the importance of the Fighting Irish’s showdown against No. 15 Louisville on Saturday.

“Louisville is a good team,” Pollack said. “If Notre Dame loses, guess what? You’re gone. Like, there is no shot. You can’t tell me Notre Dame, with their schedule, if they have two losses, one to NIU — which lost this past weekend by the way — you’re gonna have nothing on your schedule that you can point to.

“There’s no conference championship game. Listen, Notre Dame has an advantage with no conference championship game getting into the playoffs, but they’re also never going to get a bye. So it’s kind of a double-edged sword, but they got to win to take care of their chances to be in that mix.”

After suffering a stunning 16-14 loss to NIU in Week 2, Notre Dame has no room for mistakes. Louisville and USC are the only two ranked teams remaining on Notre Dame’s schedule.

Louisville won’t be easy to defeat. The Cardinals are 3-0 this season, most recently defeating Georgia Tech 31-19. In the 2023 campaign, Louisville handily defeated Notre Dame 33-20. The Fighting Irish can’t afford to repeat history.

“Notre Dame’s got a big weekend ahead because if they win this one, they’ll stay in the mix and make the committee make a tough decision at the end of the year,” Pollack said.

“They’re going to look at their résumé and Louisville will probably be a two-loss team at least by that point, and they’re going to point to their schedule and say, ‘Where are the wins that really mattered for this football team to get in the College Football Playoff?'”

Notre Dame fans won’t have to wait much longer to watch their beloved Fighting Irish compete to keep their postseason dreams alive. On Saturday, Notre Dame and Louisville will go head-to-head at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on Peacock.