Notre Dame earned the right to be in the four-team College Football Playoff.

One of the reasons I don’t like the idea and likely inevitable expansion to eight teams in a playoff is because even four sometimes seems too much — especially the past six years.

Most of the time, Team No. 3 is still viable, but seldom Team No. 4.

With the exception of LSU last year and Georgia in 2017, college football since 2015 has been Alabama’s and Clemson’s world (and even since 2009 for the Crimson Tide).

When you vanquish an Alabama or Clemson during the regular season, as Notre Dame did with the Tigers or LSU did with the Crimson Tide in 2019, you’ve achieved something special.

This year, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Florida are the high-quality second-level group. Among them collectively, the Fighting Irish had the best resume in 2020. They played almost twice as many games as the Buckeyes, defeated who they are “supposed to” (unlike Oklahoma and Florida), and had the most quality wins versus two top-15 teams, notably Clemson.