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It Was A Bad Year To Be A Two-Loss Notre Dame Team

Despite a 10-2 season and wins over three teams ranked by the College Football Playoff Committee, Notre Dame is going to the Camping World Bowl to play 7-5 Iowa State instead of one of the well-respected New Year’s Six bowls.

Some of this has to do with which games were available to Notre Dame (there were only two at-large bids to New Years Six bowls this season), but it also has to do with how top-heavy college football this year.

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In the first five years of the College Football Playoffs, a total of five two-loss “power five” teams were left out of the New Year’s Six games. Only once did this happen to multiple "power five" teams in the same season.

The “power five” teams to miss out on New Year’s Six games were North Carolina, Northwestern and TCU in 2015; West Virginia in 2016 and Washington State in 2018. No two-loss teams were left out off the list of New Year's Six teams in 2014 and 2017.

In 2015, Notre Dame was also a two-loss team at the end of the regular season, but those defeats came by two points each against Clemson and Stanford, who finished No. 1 and No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff Rankings.

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Including Notre Dame, four two-loss “power five” teams were left out of the New Year’s Six this season. The others were 10-2 Alabama, 10-2 Minnesota and 11-2 Utah, which lost to Oregon 37-15 in the Pac-12 Championship game.

While Notre Dame fans have a right to be upset about going to the Camping World Bowl with two losses, they’re certainly not the only team that can gripe about how the New Year’s Six games shook out.

This was just an especially bad year to be a two-loss team, independent of a conference. Of course, it also doesn't help that one of those two losses was a 45-14 beat down at the hands of Michigan.

Two-Loss Power Five Teams Left Out of New Year’s Six Bowls In CFP Era

• 2019 Notre Dame

• 2019 Alabama

• 2019 Minnesota

• 2019 Utah

• 2018 Washington State

• 2016 West Virginia

• 2015 North Carolina

• 2015 Northwestern

• 2015 TCU

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