College football employs a four-team playoff. In that system, a championship team plays two playoff games, a semifinal and a final. Notre Dame, however, is looking at a 12-game playoff this year. As Irish coach Brian Kelly explained Tuesday, every Notre Dame game since the 20-19 loss to Georgia in the season’s second week has had the significance of a playoff game.
“Our guys don’t know it any other way,” Kelly said. “Everybody else seems to have caught on with this idea that Notre Dame is playing for a Playoff spot. We don’t have anything else to play for.