An old gambling adage insists, “No team is as good as its most-recent game, and no team is as bad, either.” The logic applies far beyond wagering. It is, simply put, a guard against recency bias.
A week ago, such poor judgement insisted Notre Dame never belonged in the College Football Playoff, its 30-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Clemson an inarguable indicator the Irish were overrated and more comparable to three-loss Florida, Michigan or Syracuse than Oklahoma, Ohio State or Georgia. As a program, Notre Dame was closer to the Camping World Bowl than a title.
Following Monday’s title game rout in which the Tigers rolled past Alabama 44-16, recency bias points out the Irish lost by 27 to the national champions, a point better than the Tide managed.