Notre Dame football fans should root for the Irish to play in this bowl game

It’s wait-and-see season for Notre Dame football fans. Without a conference championship game to watch this weekend, the Fighting Irish are sitting around until this coming Sunday for a destination for the upcoming postseason.

The bowl projections are still a mixed bag for Notre Dame, but a couple have popped up more than others from reputable national outlets: The Holiday Bowl and the Gator Bowl. Two BlueandGold.com writers debate which of those that Notre Dame fans should hope to see the Irish play in.

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Tyler Horka: There Is A First Time For Everything 

How do two trips to Southern California in as many months sound, Notre Dame fans?

If commercialized beaches and heavy interstate traffic endured during the Fighting Irish’s trip to Los Angeles for the rivalry versus USC was off-putting, why not give the Golden State another whirl in a less congested city for a Holiday Bowl appearance in San Diego about a month later?

Notre Dame has never played in the Holiday Bowl. Traditionally, it was a game with tie-ins for the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12. Now, it’s an ACC vs. Pac-12 matchup. Notre Dame can take the spot of an ACC team if its record is within one game of the ACC team that would have otherwise been picked.

The Holiday Bowl has not been played since 2019. COVID canceled it in 2019 and 2020. What better way to usher it back into the rotation than with the biggest brand in college football playing in it for the first time ever?

Sure, it’s played at PetCo Park — a baseball stadium. But it’s not like Notre Dame has not played in baseball venues before. Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park ring a bell?

The opponents present intriguing prospects, too. Odds are the game will be against UCLA, Washington or Utah — all of which are teams that have been mainstays in the polls in 2022. Any of those three would present a tough challenge to head coach Marcus Freeman and the Irish to close out the season, and that’s the way it should be. Spare me the “let’s just play someone we can easily beat” narrative.

So bring on a capable opponent. Bring on the warm weather, again. Bring on the Holiday Bowl.

Todd D. Burlage: The Gator Bowl Vs. The SEC Is Perfect 

Playing in the Gator Bowl won’t provide the same anticipation or excitement as a trip to a New Year’s Six Bowl, or obviously, the Fiesta Bowl or the Peach Bowl in the College Football Playoff would’ve.

But given the way this up-and-down Fighting Irish season played out, a bowl game Dec. 30 in Jacksonville, Fla., is an appropriate reward.

After starting this season 3-3 — and with games still to come against Syracuse, Clemson and USC — bowl eligibility remained uncertain for an unpredictable Notre Dame team that had already lost to Marshall and Stanford as prohibitive favorites.

Instead, the Irish and first-year head coach Marcus Freeman righted things, won three straight games to become bowl eligible, and never looked back.

Again, a trip to the Gator Bowl didn’t fit into Notre Dame’s preseason plans. But it certainly woulda fit into its midseason hopes when nobody knew which way this season was going to go.

And a game in a second-tier bowl against a quality opponent — such as Arkansas (6-6) or red-hot South Carolina (8-4) from the SEC — is probably best for an Irish program that’s still finding its way under a first-year head coach.

Arkansas and Notre Dame begin a home-and-home series in Fayetteville, Ark., in 2025, with the return date in South Bend in 2028.

Meaning, that this potential Gator Bowl matchup would provide both a preview to a future series and a measurement game for Notre Dame against the SEC.

That said, nobody will be interested this time next year in a December bowl game.