Where Notre Dame stands in post-Week 4 bowl projections
Present the Gator Bowl or the Holiday Bowl as the projection for Notre Dame’s postseason game after either of the Irish’s first two contests, and you would have been greeted with responses questioning your mental faculties.
A 21-10 loss to then-No. 2 Ohio State to open the season felt like it enhanced the New Year’s Six likelihood. It was a fine acquittal for a two-touchdown underdog and left the Irish still safely in the top 10 in both voter polls. Notre Dame fans wanted to hear nothing about pre-New Year’s Eve bowl games in Florida.
An ignominious 26-21 home defeat to Marshall one week later, though, called everything into question. ReliaQuest bowl? Pffft. Just reaching bowl eligibility felt murky after a loss as a 20.5-point favorite that knocked out starting quarterback Tyler Buchner for the season.
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The Irish have rebounded since then, sitting at 2-2 on their off week with a 45-32 win over North Carolina that suggested their offense could be competent with Drew Pyne at quarterback and be enough to safely reach bowl eligibility.
A six-to-eight-win season would put Notre Dame somewhere in the ACC’s primary eight non-New Year’s Six bowls. The Irish need to be within one game of the ACC team that is eligible for a specific bowl to be an option for that bowl to pick. Eight wins could make them eligible for any of the bowls. Six or seven would likely take the top ACC tie-ins – the Cheez-It Bowl and the Holiday Bowl – off the table.
The bowl projections through four weeks offer a wide array of possibilities. CBS Sports has Notre Dame playing in the Dec. 30 Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla.) against Florida. That game became an ACC vs. SEC bowl in 2020. USA Today Sports slotted Notre Dame in the Dec. 28 Holiday Bowl (San Diego) against Oregon. The ACC replaced the Big Ten as one Holiday Bowl tie-in before the 2020 season. The Pac-12 is the other.
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Notre Dame and Florida have played just once before, a 39-28 Irish win in the 1992 Sugar Bowl. The two teams are scheduled to play a home-and-home series in 2031 and 2032. The Irish have played Oregon twice, a 13-13 tie in 1982 and a 41-0 win in 1976.
ActionNetwork’s Brett McMurphy sees Notre Dame’s season ending with a record that makes them eligible for the ACC’s Cheez-It Bowl bid. McMurphy put Notre Dame in the Dec. 29 Cheez-It Bowl (Orlando, Fla.) against Oklahoma. The Irish last played in the Cheez-It Bowl in 2019, when it was known as the Camping World Bowl. They defeated Iowa State 33-9. Clemson (9-3 in the regular season) was last year’s ACC Cheez-It Bowl team.
Notre Dame last played Oklahoma in 2013, a 35-21 Sooners win in South Bend. The Irish lead the all-time series 9-2.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura placed Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas) against Washington State, while colleague Mark Schlabach also put the Irish in the Gator Bowl opposing Florida. Notre Dame last played in the Sun Bowl in 2010, when it beat Miami. It has faced Washington State twice before, most recently a 40-14 win in 2009 at San Antonio’s Alamodome – the inaugural Shamrock Series game.
