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Paul Finebaum: Notre Dame's College Football Playoff path 'fine' entering final stretch

Screen Shot 2024-05-28 at 9.09.17 AMby:Kaiden Smith•11/04/24•

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Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. (Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)

The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season will be released on Tuesday, giving the first-ever look at what the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff could potentially look like. And there’s no question that where Notre Dame lands in the rankings will be one of the most fascinating storylines to track.

The Fighting Irish took the biggest upset loss of the season earlier this year, but still have a handful of ranked wins under their belts and one of the strongest rosters in college football. Leading to college football analyst Paul Finebaum being asked if he thinks Notre Dame will be fine or not regarding the postseason.

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“Fine,” Finebaum told Matt Barrie on SportsCenter. “When they lost to Northern Illinois, it seems like a million years ago, it was only two months. A lot of us wrote them off.”

Notre Dame’s home loss to the Huskies in Week 2 sent shockwaves across the entire college football landscape. But Finebaum believes the further away Notre Dame continues to get from that game and finishes the season strong, the higher their chances are of making it to the College Football Playoff.

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“But Northern Illinois didn’t turn out to be as bad as we thought and so many other schools have lost, Matt, that Notre Dame assuming it runs the table, its got Army and Southern Cal and a couple others, they will get in,” Fimebaum concluded.

The Fighting Irish started off the season with an impressive ranked win on the road against Texas A&M. Also defeating a ranked Navy team with No. 18 Army on their schedule as well as another opportunity to further bolster their resume.

But as an independent program that will not compete for a conference title for an automatic bid in the College Football Playoff, the Fighting Irish will have no choice but to work towards running the table and hoping to land one of the coveted spots in the CFP.