SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Right now, Notre Dame is ranked 10th in the first College Football Playoff Ranking.
Last year, Notre Dame Stadium hosted Indiana University for the first-ever playoff game at the stadium on December 20.
There were many firsts last year.
Pete Sampson, Senior writer at The Athletic, has been covering Notre Dame Football for 25 years. He explains the energy of that game, which he says was one of the ‘coolest home environments’ he’s covered and seen during his 25 years on the beat.
“So that was the first on-campus playoff game ever —for anybody. So, the playoff, when it expanded to 12 teams last year, was the first year of it, and when it expanded, that was the first time they opened the door for teams to host. And Notre Dame happened to be playing in that Friday night slot. So that was by nature of the schedule, the first one,” said Sampson. “College Game Day was here, and it's like, even, like, you play night games, but like, they're never on Friday night. So that was kind of cool, too. But yeah, that was just the nature of it being first, I think, really super-charged it in kind of a cool way.”
ABC57’s Jordan Tolbert asked Sampson how likely it is that Notre Dame could host a playoff game.
“Pretty remote, as you know, it's like, I would have a hard time putting a number on it. I would just say it's very unlikely at this point, but it's college football. Stranger things have happened, but there's a lot of help, and Notre Dame probably needs it to start this weekend with the next round of games,” said Sampson.
Sampson says they have to be a top 8 seed, and it’s pretty unlikely that the teams ranked above Notre Dame will lose.
“I think the way Notre Dame’s schedule shapes up the rest of the way, there's not a marquee opportunity for them to go out and beat Alabama or Texas or Indiana down the road. So they sort of need help to host— probably a lot of it. So, whether that's maybe Oregon losing at Iowa this weekend, or, you know, Ole Miss stumbling down the stretch, that's the kind of stuff they're going to need to get into one of those slots where they can host a home playoff game,” said Sampson.
Sampson says Notre Dame is much more in control of just making the playoff, ending up in one of the top 12 spots, but it’s not a lock.
“Notre Dame is not 100% locked in to make the playoff. If they win out. There are some weird circumstances that can happen, like, if Oklahoma wins out and Texas wins out, then Notre Dame might be in a little bit of trouble. But I still think if you're a Notre Dame fan, and you're looking ahead to what the college football playoff is going to look like—if Notre Dame closes with four straight wins, they would have won 10 in a row, maybe all by double digits. You feel really, really good about Notre Dame going to the playoff, but you're probably going to be watching them play somewhere else at the end of December, opposed to, you know, another really cool environment, like they had against Indiana last year,” said Sampson.
He says, though Notre Dame also came out ranked 10th in the first bracket last year, this year looks a little different.
“You know, last year they come out at 10 in the first bracket, and then they just went on to just steamroll everybody the rest of the way. So, you've got to do that first. Last weekend's Boston College performance—not a steamroll of any stretch of the imagination there. So, it's even there, you're just like, ‘okay, this is a little bit different.’ But I think that the biggest difference is just like the teams in front of them,” said Sampson. Last year, I felt like there were a lot of teams that were playing each other, so you're guaranteed one's going to win, one's going to win, one's going to lose, you're going to jump the loser. And even this weekend, BYU and Texas Tech play, one will win, one will lose, and Notre Dame will jump the loser. But a lot of these teams, like Georgia, Ole Miss, that I think are fifth and sixth right now, they don't play each other. They don't have huge tests the rest of the way. So they're very unlikely to lose, almost as unlikely as Notre Dame is the rest of the way. So last year, there was just sort of like a certainty you were going to move up two or three spots, just by nature of logic. This year, it feels that's a lot less likely to happen.” m
He says the next bracket will look different, and Notre Dame can definitely move up, but there’s not a lot of upward mobility.
According to Jeff Jarnecke, Executive Director of Visit South Bend Mishawaka, the average home football game has a $36 million economic impact, but Jarnecke says last year’s home playoff game was an unexpected gift.
“So, the previous year, in 2023, hotel rooms were only 28% full. We're selling for $88 a night. Last year, when Indiana was in town on that Friday night, hotel rooms were 85% full and selling for $428 per night. Revenue in terms of that entire week was up 372% year over year,” said Jarnecke.“So that impact, that was just our catalyst to what's going to be a record breaking, record setting, 2025 for us, and that gift that came to the South Bend, Mishawaka and St. Joseph county communities along the way was something unexpected, but so much needed and so well deserved for our community, for our restaurant tours, for our hoteliers, for our small businesses, for our fans who call this place home or call it as their special spot, from their experiences as well, and to have that on that given weekend was something that we couldn't have otherwise replaced,” said Jarnecke.
And they hope to replicate that *this year with another* home playoff game, though he notes there’s still a lot of football to be played and nobody can really anticipate what’ll happen.
“It really is just a hope, but part of our strategy around that, though, so that we don't have to rely on just a hope, is to fill the stadium with other events and bring more events to St Joseph County. And so, the lineup with two concerts at the stadium next year is just incredible,” said Jarnecke. “We have a few more announcements to make yet this year, and then you see the attractions like the Indiana Dinosaur Museum, Zoo illuminate so many other great things that are going on in St joseph County. It makes us rely a little less on those football weekends, but those will forever be circled on all of our calendars, on something pretty special, whether it's five home games or like seven that we had this year, and hopefully an eighth come December.”