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NCAA Football Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame Football Bowl Game Projections

By

Tarean Folston Notre Dame

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame may find it tough to field a defense for their bowl game, but the Fighting Irish (7-5) are indeed bowl bound. Where the Irish are heading, well, that’s up in the air.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick wanted to provide the football program with more bowl options, which was part of the reasoning behind the alliance with the ACC. As part of their agreement with the ACC, Notre Dame must be within one game of the team eligible for that particular bowl slot.

Florida State and Georgia Tech were the two division winners and will square off in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night. A Florida State win would seemingly clinch a berth in the College Football Playoff and would likely send Georgia Tech to the Orange Bowl as the ACC champion fill-in.

Clemson, which finished the season 9-3, appears destined for the Russell Athletic Bowl as the next highest ranked ACC team. This would leave a pool of teams to fill out the next tier of bowl options: Duke, Louisville, Notre Dame, Boston College and North Carolina State.

A caveat for bowl selection within the ACC this year is after the Russell Athletic Bowl makes its selection, there is no particular order from which the other bowls get to select teams; therefore, a drawing will be held to see how the teams get slotted into each bowl game.

For the Irish, the bowl must request to have Notre Dame in order to be included in that particular drawing. It’s safe to assume the remaining bowl options will request Notre Dame due to their national draw and a fanbase willing to travel.

Since Notre Dame played in the Pinstripe Bowl last season, I don’t see the Irish returning to New York, although a matchup against Penn State would draw plenty of viewers. The Irish limped to the finish line, and I foresee that trend continuing in their bowl placement. Despite other more attractive destinations and matchups, potentially against SEC competition, Notre Dame will return to El Paso, Texas and take on a Pac-12 opponent.

The Irish won’t be matched up against Stanford, Arizona State or USC since Notre Dame already played them this year, and no Irish fan wants to relive either game against the Sun Devils or Trojans. Also, UCLA played in the Sun Bowl last year and are unlikely for selection. This leaves either Washington or Utah as an opponent.

Since the Utes are closer in proximity, the Sun Bowl will select Utah against Notre Dame on Dec. 27.

Prediction: Sun Bowl – Notre Dame vs. Utah

Patrick Leiva is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and add him to your network on Google.

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