Georgia’s loss cripples Notre Dame’s slim College Football Playoff odds

The Georgia Bulldogs’ home loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks has the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s College Football Playoff chances hanging on by a thread.

It’s like getting beaten twice by the same team in the same college football season. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have no idea what that feels like because they don’t play in a conference and can’t play in a conference championship game. But what the Georgia Bulldogs did, or didn’t do, on the gridiron today versus South Carolina certainly serves a cheap replica for that notion.

Notre Dame lost in Athens on Sept. 21, 23-17. Given that Notre Dame doesn’t have the luxury of a 13th data point during a regular season because of that whole not playing in a conference thing, the Irish didn’t have any room whatsoever if they wanted to get back into the College Football Playoff in 2019. The Irish needed chaos, but not what Georgia offered.

With the Dawgs falling at home to a sub-.500 South Carolina Gamecocks team 20-17 in double overtime Between the Hedges, you can pretty much kiss Notre Dame’s Playoff chances goodbye. The team they had already lost to just suffered an embarrassing defeat nobody outside of Columbia, South Carolina saw coming. It was as if Mark Richt was still coaching the Dawgs…

Even if Notre Dame wins out to be 11-1 on the year, that road loss to Georgia won’t look as great as it did even a week ago. Georgia still has to play other strong teams in the SEC like the Auburn Tigers and the Florida Gators before the Dawgs even dream about going back to a third-straight SEC Championship Game. But there’s hope for Georgia.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame will have to sit helplessly.

The Irish won’t be given the benefit of the doubt by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee because they will have lost to the best team on their 2019 schedule. If Georgia were to collapse down the stretch, that blemish in Athens will only look worse by the week.

Notre Dame will need the Clemson Tigers to fall apart and the Pac-12 to be terrible to have any shot at getting into the Playoff for the second consecutive. That’s quite the parlay, but having Georgia potentially mess it all up not even a month after their late September meeting is the wrench the Irish didn’t need in the spoke of their bicycle.

What Notre Dame can look forward to is probably taking the ACC’s spot in the Orange Bowl it wouldn’t have deserved in the first place, assuming Clemson continues to not lose and get to the Playoff for the unbelievable fifth year in a row. The Irish need to beat the snot out of the USC Trojans tonight in South Bend to help their cause. Anything less and it won’t matter.

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