Notre Dame & the College Football Playoff: Week 8 games to watch

Notre Dame football has put itself into the position to potentially have a repeat of 2025, as it’s dropped the first big game of the year to BYU last weekend and won’t be able to get the bitter taste from their mouth’s until next week.

The Irish’s margin for error to make the College Football Playoff has now slimmed a bit, and with just two games remaining with current top-25 opponents, it’s worth watching what other teams are doing who are left on the schedule. Not only that, Notre Dame should be scoreboard watching other games as well, as others could impact the Irish’s future.

With Notre Dame being off this weekend, here are a few games of importance that Irish fans should be playing attention to during Week 8.

Pittsburgh Panthers (5-2) at No. 1 Miami Hurricanes (6-0)

Kickoff: 11 a.m. CDT on ESPN

There’s no doubt in my mind that a win over the No. 1 team in the country, and an 11-1 regular season record gets Notre Dame into the CFP. With that said, while many of us have a dislike for the Hurricanes, we should be rooting for them in this one. The Panthers are good, but they aren’t nearly at the same level as Miami.

California Golden Bears (3-4) vs. No. 23 SMU Mustangs (5-1)

Kickoff: 11 a.m. CDT on The CW

The other ranked team that is remaining on Notre Dame schedule is barely hanging on, even with just one loss. The hope is that SMU doesn’t slip up from now until Nov. 21, as Cal isn’t a terrible team. The Irish need the Mustangs to win, and hopefully they’ll do their part in helping the cause.

No. 2 BYU Cougars (6-0) at UCF Knights (3-3)

Kickoff: 2:30 p.m. CDT on FOX

At this point, we should be rooting for the Cougars, as losing to an eventual undefeated team will look much better for Notre Dame’s CFP resume. Yeah, a win in that game was obviously the preferred result, but now that it has passed, BYU winning out is the best case scenario for the Irish.

No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels (5-1) at No. 19 Texas Longhorns (4-2)

Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. CDT on ABC

The SEC is going to get multiple teams in, but if more than a few of them have at least two losses, that could help Notre Dame’s cause. With that in mind, I think rooting for the Longhorns is the move, even if I don’t think they’re the better team. Maybe they find some juice being at home and trying to correct what went wrong last week. That’s the hope for the Irish.

No. 14 Houston Cougars (6-1) at No. 10 Utah Utes (6-0)

Kickoff: 9:15 p.m. CDT on ESPN

One of these two teams could be a bid stealer, and the more losses each of them has the better. Since Houston already has one, we’d like to see Utah take along this week, and in the future when they play BYU. One the other hand, Houston dropping another one might be a good idea, since they don’t really have another challenging team remaining on its schedule following this game. Hard to pinpoint who Notre Dame really wants to lose, but either works.

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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Notre Dame & the College Football Playoff: Week 8 games to watch