Skip to main content
notre-dame logo

Newsstand: Where Notre Dame falls in Ari Wasserman’s 2025 College Football Playoff projection

Singer headshotby:Mike Singer•05/20/25•

MikeTSinger

Jeremiyah Love
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. (Chad Weaver, Blue & Gold)

Look, it’s May. It’s the slowest period of the year when it comes to college football. There’s still plenty of news to go around, but it marks the dog days of summer.

Thus, way-too-early polls and predictions start rolling out, including a 2025 college football playoff projection via On3’s Ari Wasserman. He predicted the 12-team playoff bracket, and Notre Dame cracked it with a No. 7 seed.

His projection has the Irish as the No. 7 seed, hosting Illinois in the first round.

“Everyone has been saying Illinois is this year’s Indiana,” wrote Wasserman. “Well, there is a solid chance of that happening. And if it does, how funny would it be if the Illini had to head up to South Bend in the first round of the CFP?

“Notre Dame surprised people last year advancing to the title game — beating Georgia along the way — but the Irish are going to be very good again. Having one of the best offensive lines in and perhaps the best running back in college football is going to lead to wins for Notre Dame, including another first-round home victory over an upstart Big Ten foe.”

In the next round, the Irish meet Penn State in the Rose Bowl, where Wasserman predicts the Nittany Lions will get revenge on Notre Dame in the 2025–26 season.

“In one of the most insane stats you’ll ever see, Penn State went the entire game in its CFP semifinals loss to Notre Dame [last season] without a receiver catching a pass. And yet, the Nittany Lions were still a possession away from reaching the national title game. This offseason, James Franklin addressed the receivers room in a big way — picking up Syracuse transfer Trebor Pena and others — and the Nittany Lions are a more explosive team offensively. Penn State, the Big Ten champs, move on.”

Wasserman has Texas knocking off Clemson in the national title game. See the full projection in the tweet below.

Notre Dame tweets of the day

Quote of the day

“I’m very high on Notre Dame. It’s a great school with great academics. It’s an awesome program all-around, and they’re building something special with this recruiting class. Coach Washington has been reaching out and making me feel like a priority. I’m definitely very high on them.”

— 2026 four-star DL Khary Wilder on the Fighting Irish

Headlines of the day

You may also like