Written by Liam Farrell｜Writer｜Twitter/X: @LiamFarrell_IT
Photo by The Irish Tribune
The college football landscape in 2024 is a sea of uncharted water. With conference realignment, an expanded playoff format, and the transfer portal continuing to run rampant, there is a new era of college football that is starting this upcoming August. While the University of Notre Dame was once a symbol of the old school tradition of the sport, the University continues to adjust itself to the times. While the Fighting Irish and Marcus Freeman have been sharks in the transfer portal, their upcoming schedule is one that isn't normal for the Irish - it's noticeably weaker. While in years past this could be a cause of concern while coupling it with a lack of conference championship game, the 12-team playoff makes this reality more acceptable. Let's take a deeper look here.
Strength of Record History
Year | Record | Strength of Record |
2023 | 10-3 | 13th |
2022 | 9-4 | 20th |
2021 | 11-2 | 10th |
2020 | 10-2 | 4th |
2019 | 11-2 | 10th |
Over the past five years, Notre Dame's strength of record has ranked within the top 20 schools. The main gripe around the college football community is Notre Dame's state of independence equates with a weaker regular season schedule. However, this misconception is clearly not true. While Notre Dame plays a conventional ACC schedule for the most part, non-ACC games over the past years such as Ohio State and upcoming Texas A&M have boosted the strength of schedule for the Fighting Irish, as well.
Notre Dame in years past also has been on the wrong end of scheduling when it comes to ACC games. The ACC normally schedules BYE week games the immediate week before their matchup with the Fighting Irish. As a result of this, a well-rested, two-week prepared game against quality ACC opponents makes games significantly harder for the Fighting Irish.
2024 Slate
While appreciating a tougher regular season schedule in the past, the 2024 season will be a little bit different.
Photo via Notre Dame Football
As seen above, the schedule this year has a little bit of a different look to it. While Marcus Freeman has learned never to overlook an opponent via the lesson in 2022 against Marshall, this schedule has plenty of smaller games. I'll break up the schedule into three categories.
Tier 1:
Texas A&M
USC
FSU
Louisville
Tier 2:
Stanford
Purdue
Georgia Tech
Tier 3:
NIU
Virginia
Miami (OH)
Army
Navy
The Notre Dame schedule is the weakest it's been over the last twenty years. The Irish only have one home night game this year, with Florida State coming to South Bend in early November. The Fighting Irish also only have three true away games (Texas A&M, Purdue, and USC) , with three neutral site games at NFL stadiums (Army, Navy, and Georgia Tech). While an opening week away game in the hardest environment in college football according to the research done by EA Sports might be frightening, if the Irish pass that first road test, it should be smooth sailing.
The 12-Team Playoff
As a whole, this weaker schedule only works because of the expanded playoff format. In the four team playoff format over the last decade, a weak strength of schedule along with the lack of a 13th game would be detrimental for the Irish. With more teams able to make the playoff, the Fighting Irish don't need perfection to crack the playoff. A one-loss Notre Dame team is very hard to leave off a 12-team playoff picture.
Knowing this, why not have a weaker schedule to limit the wear-and-tear that comes with an absolute gauntlet of a schedule. A weaker schedule with a handful of big games prepares the Fighting Irish for the playoff without making them perceptible to a high volume of losses. This is why the combination of a weaker schedule, and a 12-team playoff should be a recipe that the Fighting Irish can take full advantage of until the college football playoff committee makes them pay. As it stands, there is no greater chance for the Irish to reach new heights with this strength of schedule in an expanded playoff.
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