SB Nation Reacts: Will Notre Dame reach the College Football Playoff this year?

We asked — and you responded

By Joshua Vowles@TheSubwayDomer Jul 7, 2021, 3:38pm EDT

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NCAA Football: College Football Playoff Semifinal-Cotton Bowl-Notre Dame vs Clemson

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

Something has been lost in the college football discussion over the last month or so with the news about a new college football playoff format, and with all of the NIL talk. And that something is this year’s actual season.

Which is absolutely fine — it’s July, and we’re still allowed to have fun.

Despite our fondness for fun and living that carefree lifestyle this summer, we still managed to get a survey out that asks the all important question... will Notre Dame reach the College Football Playoff this season.

Yep

58% of Irish fans said that they WILL reach the playoff, and that’s a fairly strong number.

There’s a myth out there that says the Irish HAVE to be undefeated to make the college football playoff. This is 100% BS — and I’m not talking about last year’s CFP Notre Dame team that had a conference championship loss. All we have to do is take a look at 2017 to know this is a false narrative. Even with the one loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, Notre Dame was in the top 4 of the playoff rankings until the disastrous collapse against Miami and Stanford. Had the Irish won those two games, they would have made the playoff with one loss — narrative smashed.

In 2021, however, there really isn’t a Georgia type team where a close loss does little to no damage to the playoff rankings. So... if you think Notre Dame is headed to the CFP this season, they will almost certainly have to be undefeated — which is entirely doable.

As far as the rest of the college football playoff field, SBN readers were asked who the conference champions will be in 2021, and we get a good idea of the pool that has a chance.