No. 3 Notre Dame may have sealed a playoff spot by beating then-No. 1 Miami (FL) on Saturday, assuming the Fighting Irish take care off business and win their remaining three games.
Heck, one can argue that by beating now-No. 3 Miami, the Irish might be able to absorb a second loss now.
One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that if the Irish are anywhere in the top 12 of the College Football Playoff committee's final ranking after the regular season, they're in the playoff.
That clause starts this season. And will not last until next season.
It sadly wouldn't have helped the Irish, who were controversially excluded from the playoff, last year. It might help this year, depending on how the next three games play out. And it might've been a crutch
had the Irish lost to Miami.
But with the field expanding to 24 teams, the clause is being killed.
That might seem to be worrisome for Notre Dame fans, but with a 24-team playoff, the Irish will likely qualify in any year that they have just one or two losses. They might even qualify with three, depending on strength of schedule, quality of certain wins and losses, and how other teams perform.
Of course, Notre Dame's independence is going to play a part. The new playoff isn't simply taking the 24 teams with the best records (and factoring in tiebreakers). Conference affliation matters.
The conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC will be determined by their respective conferences, and they will get bids. Those four teams are in.
From there, one bid will go to the highest-ranked team from the American Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 and Sun Belt.
That leaves 19 spots. They will go to the highest-ranked teams remaining teams in the CFP selection committee's final rankings.
So, as an independent, Notre Dame would have to be one of those 19 teams. In theory, that shouldn't be too hard for the Irish, though we'll have to see how factors like strength of schedule factor in from year to year.
Notable in reporting by @CFBHeather on the CFP expansion: Notre Dame will no longer have an automatic inclusion clause if it meets a certain ranking criteria.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) November 9, 2026
RIP Notre Dame Clause
Born: December 2025
Died: November 2026
But what a full life it lived.
24-team College Football Playoff details: pic.twitter.com/gAVL7J7Ffe
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) November 9, 2026
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Notre Dame will lose automatic playoff bid clause after CFP expansion
