Peachy possibilities exist for Notre Dame football with a win at Clemson
Gary Stokan once played in a high school all-star basketball tournament in Sharon, Pa., decades ago with his starring backcourt mate being Joe Montana and his then-breathtaking vertical leap.
Yep, that Joe Montana.
Stokan also helped coax his second- and third-grade music teachers at his Catholic grade school to incorporate the Notre Dame fight song into the class’ routine and curriculum. And after winning the MVP award for his age group as an eighth-grader at then-Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Johnny Dee’s summer camp, Stokan proclaimed he would end up at Notre Dame to play college basketball.
The now 68-year-old CEO and president of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl ended up playing hoops at NC State. Coaching there, too, briefly.
But he still has a soft spot for Notre Dame and its football program, which still has a fairly realistic chance of landing in Atlanta for its postseason destination and in the bowl system’s ninth-oldest game for the first time ever.
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And yes, the Irish could face former offensive coordinator Tommy Rees — now with Alabama — in that game or former ND head coach Brian Kelly and LSU. The Tigers beat Florida State in the first-ever Peach Bowl in 1968.
“I remember going to a Notre Dame-Pitt game with my dad,” the Pittsburgh native told Inside ND Sports this week, “and I was probably 8 years old. We’re in the middle of the Pitt section, and I remember my dad almost got in a fight ’cause I was cheering so loud for Notre Dame.”
And all the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl committee, decades removed from schmoozing bowl reps at games in loud blazers, can do is cheer and watch and hope as the College Football Playoff Selection committee fills the two-at large spots in its bowl, in the Cotton Bowl, in the Fiesta Bowl and the four playoff semifinal spots to be played out in the Rose and Sugar bowls in the final season of the four-team playoff format.
The sixth New Year’s Six game, the Orange Bowl, will select the highest-ranked ACC team available to pair with the highest-ranked, non–playoff SEC team, Big Ten team or Notre Dame — though beyond a long shot in this postseason for the Irish.
Notre Dame’s postseason options should become clearer after Saturday’s road test at Clemson (4-4). The CFP No. 15 Irish (7-2), ranked three spots lower than in the major just-for-fun polls, will attempt to become the fourth team of 66 in the past decade to leave Death Valley with a road win.
The only teams to do so in that time span so far have been Pitt upending the eventual 2016 national champs, South Carolina in the regular-season finale last season, and unbeaten and No. 4 Florida State on Sept. 23 of this season.
The largest margin of victory at the end of regulation in those three games was one point. The Seminoles won by seven in overtime.
Kickoff at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium is noon EDT, and ABC has the telecast.
Should the Irish finish the regular season 10-2, the Peach (Dec. 30 in Atlanta), Cotton (Dec. 29 in Arlington, Texas), Fiesta (Jan. 1 in Glendale, Ariz.) and ReliaQuest (Jan. 1 in Tampa, Fla.) bowls would comprise the postseason possibilities. To clinch a NY6 spot, the lowest ND could be ranked likely would be No. 10 in the final rankings.
A 9-3 ND team most likely ends up in the ReliaQuest Bowl against an SEC opponent, with the Pop-Tarts Bowl (Dec. 28 in Orlando, Fla.) versus a Big 12 team a less likely scenario.
“I remember the first year of the College Football Playoff (2014),” Stokan said. “I called [CFP executive director] Bill Hancock and said, ‘You’re going to call me Saturday night and let me know who we have once the committee has gone through its selections on Saturday?’ He said, ‘Gary, you will find out when the rest of America finds out.’
“So we sit there just like you do. And we watch on Sunday, when ESPN pops the teams up there. We call it our Christmas. We open our presents and see who we get a chance to host.”
This season, college football’s version of Christmas is set for Sunday, Dec. 3 — the final CFP rankings reveal. The next set comes out Tuesday night at 7 EST on ESPN.
All six NY6 bowls have been incorporated into the expanded 12-team playoff that starts next season. They’ll host the four quarterfinal games and the two semis on a rotating basis. Next season’s national championship game will be staged in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, as will one of the quarterfinals.
The four-opening rounds games (the top four seeds get byes) will take place on the campus sites of the teams seeded 5-8.
There’s excitement about the new format, but also some unintended challenges, like the possibility of some players, already perhaps banged up for the season, having to play as many as four more games between Dec. 20-21 and Jan. 20.
In that light, will there need to be NIL incentives to keep potential high draft picks engaged? And what will become of the rest of the bowl system? And how will fans be able to afford to go to so many postseason games and with little notice to get the advanced/discounted airfares?
The upside is interest. With Notre Dame at No. 15 in the first CFP rankings, Saturday’s game at Clemson would have playoff implications for the Irish under the new format.
“You’ll have more teams in October and November that still have a shot for the playoff,” Stokan said, “whereas right now no team with two losses has ever made the playoff. So, you’re down to basically 13 teams. Next year you’ll have 30, 40, maybe even 50 teams still in the conversations. And that’s great for the sport.”
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