Josh Pate On Notre Dame - Elite Or Really Good? (Late Kick Cut)

I got to go to South Ben someone said I have not talked Notre Dame enough do we agree with that by the way I thought we've talked Notre Dame a fair amount on the show nevertheless it is one of my big questions for 2024 is this going to be the same Notre Dame or a new Notre Dame same old Notre Dame is not a bad thing same old Notre Dame would simply mean they're one of the 10 best teams and 10 best programs in the country uh same old Notre Dame will also mean I keep saying that and people will keep coming at me in the mentions and say no Notre Dame's overrated and then we'll get into that hole back and forth and we'll end up realizing no they're properly rated because no one's ranking them or rating them in the top four that's like an age-old debate on the show if you're new if this is your first time watching and I'm I'm speaking so redundantly and monotony it's because we've been down that road a thousand times like I I can't be putting Notre Dame at number eight and you tell me they're overrated and then I ask well where are they rated number eight like why why shouldn't they be rated number eight well they can't be Ohio State well Ohio State's like number three so they shouldn't be beating Ohio State nevertheless Marcus Freeman's got a really good team this year it's also the era of the expanded playoff I think Notre Dame will make the playoff this year they are minus 170 to make the playoff now that's I guess great news I don't know depending on your perspective I I guess it's great news but there's that thing here that's also present with a team like Penn State we've got teams who on one hand we know could change nothing about themselves and be good enough in a 12 team era whereas they weren't quite good enough in a four team era but that that assumes that making the playoff carries the same value that it used to well it doesn't we may pretend it for a couple of years but by 2026 or 27 you're going to realize hey there a bunch of teams that are landing like number nine seeds or number 10 seeds and uh we celebrated them the first couple of years but now we've come to realize why are we celebrating something now we wouldn't have celebrated it's the same caliber of play that we used to see it's just we we lowered the bar therefore they're able to clear the bar now and then they keep getting beaten once they get in the playoff well that's my question with Notre Dame is that what they become do they become a team because the bar gets lowered a little bit they clear it more frequently and Notre Dame had made the playoffs a couple of times don't get me wrong really really good program they had already made the playoff a couple of times even in the four team era really good however this is a team that kind of profiles as one who will be there every year is it just a bunch of oneand done is is it just a bunch of well you don't have a conference to win uh you get in the playoff and you get bounced in the first or second round and that's it or conversely do we see this new era of Notre Dame football where they're a legitimate National Championship player because those two things are not the same capable of hopping in the playoff versus a national championship Contender those are two totally different things and then the there's that whole other argument that people have had forever of will they or won't they ever join a conference and everyone's dug in like an Alabama tick as Jesse Ventura said everybody's dug in on that one way or the other but the one thing that I guess theoretically could move the needle on that is there's a rule right now you're not locking down one of those first four seeds and therefore a first round buy unless what unless you win your conference well Notre Dame doesn't have a conference to win so there there's a world of course where Notre Dame goes 10 and two and they get the 11 seed and no one thinks about this but there's also a world that we have a 2012 redo Notre Dame goes undefeated in the regular season imagine Notre Dame being number one in the country and they're undefeated and then come playoff time the best they can be is number five because they can't be one of the top four seeds and they agreed to this this is not some breaking news to them they they signed off on it they agreed they said yeah we understand we could never have a first round buy we get it we're maintaining our independence well they may very well feel that way there's no way to truly test that theory just like a dam there's no way to know if that thing's fully fortified until we put some water pressure on it I'd kind of be interested to see this world where Notre Dame's number one or number two in the country undefeated great season better than a lot of teams that are going to get buys but they don't get one and they have to go play some Red Hot team in the first round and even if they win they get banged up and then they go into the second round and they play arrested Ohio State and they get beaten overtime and they're sitting there thinking to themselves wait a minute did did we just cost ourselves a shot at a national championship for the sake of Independence the answer may be yes and then the follow-up question is is Independence that important to us and for a lot of them it is I've never been mad at Notre Dame's Independence never had a problem with it I don't have a problem with it now but as the world of college football changes I'm just open ly curious if that were to go down that way this year or any other year is that enough is that enough to change some Minds [Music]