In the modern college football game, making any major bowl game isn’t as important as making the correct major bowl game. That is to say, it seems as though a lot less emphasis is being placed on bowl games, outside of the College Football Playoff. Those games still come with the trophy and pageantry. Their prestige, however, has run dry. That’s until they’re one of the two College Football Playoff games again.
Notre Dame football, being independent, doesn’t have a conference to set their sites on winning. And, given the lack of prestige in non-playoff New Year’s Six bowls, it leaves the playoff bowls as the biggest goal of the season.