Notre Dame Football And Its Many Bowl Options

Maybe it’s because the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are playing the Miami Hurricanes? Maybe it’s that bit of info that has me thinking of the past. No, I’m not thinking about 1988 or 1989 or even 1990. No, I’m thinking of 2010. You know, that season that saw a last half surge from crushing defeats, and ended up in the Sun Bowl to take on the Canes. Kind of depressing, but I live in the real world, and the real world isn’t always rainbows shooting from our fingertips.

Look, this season is almost a complete waste. Almost. With five games left- almost half a season left, we have to look to something. We have to have some type of goal in place. There will be no playoffs, and there will be no New Years 6 bowl game, so what is there for a 2-5 Notre Dame team looking to go 6-6 or 7-5?

I’m glad you asked.

Notre Dame, of course, is part of the ACC’s bowl tie-ins. For our purposes here, we won’t need to get into all the details of the arrangement. All we need to know for this year, is that Notre Dame has a route to any bowl game that is affiliated with the ACC. With that said, Notre Dame can only be chosen ahead of an ACC team for any of these bowls if they are within one game of the ACC team (meaning: a 7-5 Irish squad can get picked over an 8-4 Florida State team).

Sound exciting?! Here’s a list of all of the possible bowl games for Notre Dame that they could realistically be invited to at either 6-6 or 7-5:

• Music City Bowl VS SEC
• Belk Bowl VS SEC
• Sun Bowl VS Pac-12
• Pinstripe Bowl VS Big 10
• Military Bowl VS American
• Detroit Lions Bowl VS Big 10
• Advocare V100 Bowl VS WILDCARD!!!
• Beef O’Brady Bowl VS American

It’s too early to speculate on which exact opponents the Irish could face in one of these bowl games if they finish the season by winning 4 of fives games- or even winning out. However, no matter what may happen, Notre Dame will play in one of these games if they get eligible. They won’t be declining anything.

Sleep tight.