In this college football era, it’s hard to quantitate what a successful season is for any team, and that applies to Notre Dame as well.
Last season was a tough pill to swallow, as the Irish infamously missed the College Football Playoff, but many believe that won’t be the case this fall. Getting to the 12-team playoff is an achievement on its own, but for programs like Notre Dame, it’s not enough. Winning it all is the ultimate goal, and CBS Sports sees the Irish having a “narrow margin between success and failure.”
Chip Patterson recently looked at the top storylines as the season gets closers, and when looking at Notre Dame, he sees “little room for error.” The current expectations are that they’ll go undefeated in the regular season, even though they’ll play expected preseason top-25 teams in Miami, BYU and SMU.
Patterson reverts back to what we saw this past season, as he said “there is no guarantee that 10-2 will be good enough to finish inside the top 12 of the committee rankings.” He thinks that Notre Dame can slip up just once during the regular season to assure itself a spot in the CFP, and he might not be wrong.
However, it depends on how the loss happens as well, as long as it’s a close one, it might not matter. I still think that a 10-2 record with the schedule that the Irish will play should be enough, but we thought the same in 2025. Hopefully it’s a moot point, and Notre Dame has a clean regular season, setting themselves up for a long CFP run.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: CBS Sports believes its boom or bust for Notre Dame football in 2026
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
