ESPN.com · Dec 9, 2015
3-point stance: What if Notre Dame had beaten Stanford?
1. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick has a sneaking suspicion that if the Fighting Irish had held onto to that 36-35 lead they took at Stanford with 30 seconds to play, instead of playing in the BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State, Notre Dame would be playing ... in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State. If it had come down to an 11-1 Notre Dame against Michigan State and Oklahoma for that final playoff berth: The Spartans beat four teams in the top 15; the Sooners beat four teams in the top 25; and the Irish went 1-2 against teams in the top 25. Not to mention the ACC did Notre Dame in. Of the Irish’s five ACC opponents, four went a combined 13-35.
