The College Football Playoff is not about narrative, though plenty will assuredly follow Notre Dame no matter Friday’s result.
It is not about washing out “a bad taste in our mouth since that ‘18” Playoff game, as fifth-year quarterback Ian Book acknowledged this week, though the No. 4 Irish would gladly leave the No. 1 Tide looking for some soap entering the offseason.
No, the Playoff semifinal is about rebounding from a loss to one of college football’s all-time great individual players with a victory against one of its all-time best offenses.
That will not be a small task for Notre Dame, but it also would not be a reasonable one for any team in the country, such is the divide between Clemson and Alabama and the rest of college football.