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Big Six Bowl Berth Remains In Play For No. 15 Notre Dame

Notre Dame lost its most recent Big Six appearance, 44-28 to Ohio State in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, and has not won such a game since 1993.
Notre Dame lost its most recent Big Six appearance, 44-28 to Ohio State in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, and has not won such a game since 1993. (Joe Camporeale)

After a 41-8 loss at Miami Nov. 11, Fighting Irish faithful began scoreboard watching to find possibilities of still making the four-team College Football Playoff with two losses.

Now, following last weekend’s 38-20 setback at Stanford, the potential of a Big Six bowl remains in play for 9-3 and No. 15 Notre Dame, per College Football Insider Brett McMurphy and Sporting News’ Bill Bender.

Many projections since last weekend have had Notre Dame heading to the Dec. 28 Camping World Bowl (5:15 p.m., ESPN) in Orlando, Fla., based on the school’s ACC tie-in, in which the No. 3 team from the league (or the Irish) would be matched up against a Big 12 opponent. This included projections by ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm and Sports Illustrated’s Eric Single.

In all three cases, the opponent listed was 7-5 Iowa State, which capped its regular season with a 20-19 loss at Kansas State. Notre Dame has played in this bowl previously, an 18-14 loss to Florida State in 2011 — when it was known as the Champs Sports Bowl. Notre Dame has never played the Cyclones in football.

Another prognosticator, ESPN’s David M. Hale, had the Irish matched up in the Citrus Bowl Jan. 1 — also in Orlando, Fla. — versus 9-3 and No. 17 LSU. The Irish defeated the Tigers 31-28 in the 2014 Music City Bowl. Also pegging that same matchup were Athlon’s Steve Lassan and Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller.

However, the possibility of a Big Six berth is most appealing because it would give Notre Dame another opportunity to end its 23-year drought of not winning a major bowl game, with the last victory being the 24-21 triumph versus Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1994.

McMurphy has the Irish slated to play 11-0 Central Florida in the Peach Bowl Jan. 1 . Provided UCF wins this weekend’s American Athletic Conference matchup against Memphis — who it routed 40-13 Sept. 30 — the Knights will be the Group of Five representative in the Big Six the way Western Michigan was last year (lost to Wisconsin), Houston in 2015 (defeated Florida State) and Boise State in 2014 (defeated Arizona).

Meanwhile, Bender has the Irish matched up against 10-2 Penn State in the Cotton Bowl Dec. 29 . The two teams last met home-and-home in 2006-07, with the Irish winning 41-17 at home the first season and the Nittany Lions taking a 31-10 decision at home in 2007. In postseason action, the two met in the 1976 Gator Bowl, a 20-9 Irish win.

In the three-year history of the CFP, eight different three-loss teams — and one with four — have received invitations to the Big Six, which is comprised of the Sugar and Rose (this year’s two semifinal games) plus Cotton, Fiesta, Orange and Peach:

• In 2014, 9-3 Ole Miss was matched against 11-1 TCU in the Peach Bowl. The Rebels were throttled by the Horned Frogs, 42-3.

That same season, 10-3 Georgia Tech (ACC runner-up) played 10-2 Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl, and 10-3 Arizona was matched against 12-1 Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Georgia Tech won (49-34), while Arizona lost (38-30).

• In 2015, Ole Miss was back in the Big Six at 9-3, but this time recorded a 48-20 romp over Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl.

• Last year, four different teams played in the Big Six with three losses.

As champions of the Pac-12, 9-3 USC was an automatic selection, and defeated 10-2 Penn State (52-49) in the Rose.

Florida State as the ACC runner-up made it at 9-3 as an at-large team, and made a late rally to vanquish 10-2 Michigan, 33-32.

Wisconsin was the Big Ten runner-up at 10-3, and ended up winning the Cotton Bowl versus 13-0 Western Michigan, 24-16.

Finally, Auburn was the first four-loss team (8-4) to make the CFP, and they lost to 10-2 Oklahoma in the Sugar, 35-19.

Although Notre Dame sputtered to the finish line this year by sandwiching a hard-fought 24-17 win over Navy in between the 33- and 18-point routs on the road versus the Hurricanes and Cardinal, it has at least three elements working in its favor to earn a Big Six bid.

Foremost is a quality résumé that includes a 3-3 record versus this week’s CFP top 25. The Irish posted impressive routs of No. 10 USC (49-14), No. 16 Michigan State (38-18) on the road, and No. 24 North Carolina State (35-14). The only other teams in the CFP rankings to defeat three teams in the current top 25 are Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma and Alabama.

The Irish losses occurred against No. 6 Georgia, at No. 7 Miami and at No. 12 Stanford.

Second, the conference playoffs this week likely could see several teams currently ranked ahead of the Irish drop behind them. For example, if No. 11 TCU loses to Oklahoma and No. 8 Ohio State fall in their league playoff, both could be behind the Irish, and the loser of the Pac-12 matchup between Stanford-USC will be as well.

Finally … the reality is the Notre Dame name still sells and is appealing in the college football market, which is a magnet to bowl reps.

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