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By Jordan Sigler
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Notre Dame might have one of the three best rosters in college football this season along with Texas and Oregon.
After feeling snubbed from the College Football Playoff last year, the Fighting Irish are motivated to do more than make the playoff; they want to win the national championship.
During his show on Tuesday, Colin Cowherd asked college football analyst Josh Pate if Notre Dame could win the national championship this season. Pate gave a bold reply to the question that will tick off the SEC fan base, arguing Notre Dame could win the SEC this year.
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"I'll put it to you this way: If they played in the SEC, I think I'd pick them to win the SEC this year," Pate said. "And I say that well, I say that because it'll stir some people up where I'm from, but I also say it because people are going to mistakenly look at their schedule and discount them.
"This is a team that can send up against any schedule in the country this year. That's no guarantee, but this is an extremely good team."
It remains to be seen if the CFP selection committee feels the same way.
The Irish knocked off 2024 SEC champion Georgia in the CFP quarterfinal in the Sugar Bowl before making a run to the national championship game. Last season, ND lost to SEC program Texas A&M 41-40 in Week 2 at home, that dropped the Irish to two losses, something the team couldn't overcome in the final CFP rankings.
Instead, the selection committee chose a three-loss Alabama team and a 10-2 Oklahoma team over Notre Dame. (Even a 56-13 win over last year's punching bag in the SEC, Arkansas, couldn't save the Irish.) Those two SEC schools didn't look like a contender for the national championship in December, and they didn't get past the quarterfinal round.
There's an argument to be made that SEC bias kept the Irish out of the CFP last year. Given Notre Dame's schedule this year, it has an even smaller margin for error in the regular season to make the playoff.
For more on the NCAA, head to Newsweek Sports.
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