This stat proves Notre Dame football is the biggest fraud in college football

Notre Dame was exposed once again by Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

Brian Kelly and Notre Dame weren’t expected to take down Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl, but their lackluster effort in a 31-14 loss that was nowhere near as close as the scoreline indicated made this game just another in a long line of embarrassments whenever the Irish end up in the national spotlight.

The Irish extended their futility streak in BCS and/or College Football Playoff games, which goes all the way back to a 41-7 drubbing at the hands of Jonathan Smith and Oregon State. They have lost seven of those games in a row, getting outscored by a combined 161 points and at least 14 points in each matchup.

In addition to Oregon State, two of the losses have come against Alabama, two more against Ohio State, one against LSU and one against Clemson.

Notre Dame has a history of getting smacked in the biggest games

While Notre’s Dame efficient passing game and Kyren Williams-led running game was deadly enough for the Irish to get by most ACC foes, elite teams that can shut down the running game and make them one-dimensional have had little difficulty dispatching them.

Be it because of recruiting disadvantages or plain old bad coaching, the Irish always shrink when they’re under the microscope. Even if they didn’t beat Alabama, they needed to put forth a better effort than what we saw in Dallas this evening.

Kelly deserves tons of credit for getting the Irish back into the playoff picture, but he should also be held over the coals for getting lambasted every single time the Irish play in a meaningful postseason game. Notre Dame will never truly be “back” until Kelly is able to reverse this worrying trend.

Maybe, if the Irish won a major BCS or Playoff game this millennium, Kelly’s team will be given a fighting chance.

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