Take Two: Would a one-loss Notre Dame team deserve a playoff spot?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

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After dismantling USC on Saturday night, Notre Dame has moved to ninth in the rankings and some could argue that it’s still wildly too low for a team whose only loss came in a one-point decision to still-unbeaten Georgia in early September.

That same night, Ohio State lost by 15 to Oklahoma. A couple weeks ago, Syracuse beat Clemson. Those two teams are still ranked ahead of the Irish, but there’s good news for Notre Dame in all this, too, because a lot of the teams higher in the rankings still have to play each other and could knock each other out of contention.

If Notre Dame runs the table - and that won’t be easy to do as the Irish close with NC State, Wake Forest, at Miami, Navy and at Stanford - do the Irish deserve a spot in the College Football Playoff? How could Notre Dame possibly be left out?

Penn State plays Ohio State this weekend. Georgia and Alabama are expected to meet in the SEC title game. TCU still has Oklahoma and the Big 12 title game among other contests to worry about. Wisconsin will almost certainly face the Big Ten division champ in that conference’s title game. If Clemson and Miami meet in the ACC title game, that will be an elimination scenario.

That leaves Notre Dame sitting pretty as other teams pick each other off. The Irish, who are out-rushing opponents 2,225 yards to 883 yards and have scored 28 rushing touchdowns and only given up one, have a tough road in the coming weeks. There is a lot of football to be played. A valid argument could be made that they’re not even the best one-loss team.

But Notre Dame has handled its business so far this season, especially in a 49-14 drubbing of USC this past weekend. If they win out, will it be difficult - if not impossible - to keep the Irish out of the playoff picture?

“Notre Dame hasn’t built enough consistent football equity over the past decade like an Ohio State, Clemson or Oklahoma to be classified with them — at this point. Right now, I do believe the Irish are a bona fide, legitimate College Football Playoff contender, but some ghosts from the past still temper the optimism into a more guarded stage. Nevertheless, finishing 11-1 — with only a one-point loss to Georgia — would make it extremely difficult to leave Notre Dame out of the playoff. Wins over USC, NC State, at Miami and at Stanford in the back half of the schedule probably would rate with most anyone. Of course, what happens sometimes is the more you win, the more the critics will say the easier your schedule seems. That’s generally a good sign.”

“USC was supposed to be a part of that gauntlet and Notre Dame just destroyed them. It was not even close. They’re a top-10 football program now in the country. I look at the remainder of the schedule and based on Saturday, Notre Dame is a better football team than NC State.

“I don’t know if they’re better than Ohio State, I don’t know if they’re better than Clemson, I don’t know if they’re better than Oklahoma. I don’t think you could say they’re the best one-loss team in the country, but they’re in a small group of teams that have one loss that I could see making a push and running their way into the playoff.”