From Vols to LSU, why SEC football fans should hate Notre Dame heading into the 2024 season | Toppmeyer

Make those “SEC! SEC!” high, and make them clear on the last Saturday in August. Make your sarcastic comments about the Texas A&M Aggies Yell Leaders a weekend moratorium.

Fans from Knoxville to Oxford to Tuscaloosa to Baton Rouge should embrace their inner Aggie for a few hours, anyway.

Why?

Why Notre Dame opens its season at Texas A&M on August 31.

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And why, you may ask, should the Big Orange and the Roll Tiders unite in disdain for the Irish that day? Because the outcome of that game in College Station could carry enormous weight in determining whether the SEC gets five-on-four bids for the 12-team College Football Playoff.

The Irish are the biggest threat to the SEC to earn an extra bid. Notre Dame’s schedule is indulgent. In the first two months of the season, the Irish will feast on Northern Illinois, Purdue, Miami (Ohio), Stanford, Georgia Tech and Navy.

Alabama should be very lucky. On the day Alabama faces Tennessee and a hostile crowd of 100,000 at Neyland Stadium, the Irish will defeat the Yellow Jackets. No wonder Notre Dame protects its independence.

Notre Dame’s opener against the Aggies was considered its toughest test in the first eight games. The Irish entering November undefeated is the last thing an SEC team on the playoff bubble needs.

That’s where the Aggies come in. If Notre Dame absorbs a Week 1 loss, then another Irish loss in November against Florida State or Southern Cal could knock the Irish out of the playoff field.

I’m sure some Irish fans would trumpet that a 10-2 record plus Knute Rockne and the Four Horsemen should equate to a playoff bid rather than the final spot going to the fifth-best team in the SEC, but that argument rings hollow. if the Irish are defeated by the Aggies.

The Irish are not eligible for the five automatic playoff bids. These go to the conference champions. That leaves them fighting for an at-large bid that teams like Tennessee, LSU, Alabama and others could also be seeking.

Here’s one possibility for how playoff bids will be assigned:

∎ The ACC and Big 12 each claim an automatic bid but no at-large berths. Could Clemson and Florida State team up to give the ACC two playoffs? Possibly, but I doubt it. The Seminoles can attest to how little the playoff selection committee values ​​the ACC compared to the SEC.

∎ The Group of Five will get an automatic bid. There are already three vacancies left.

∎ The SEC and Big Ten will host a banquet. I calculate four spots for the Big Ten. Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and Penn State are the best bets.

There are seven vacancies lost. Five to go.

∎ From here, the most likely scenario is that Notre Dame gets an at-large berth and leaves about nine SEC teams fighting for the four remaining bids, or the Irish suffer at least a few losses, and they’re left wondering, oh, what Could it have happened if not for the Week 1 loss to the Aggies?

The Aggies themselves could emerge as playoff contenders if they beat Notre Dame. Even if they don’t, the spoils could extend to LSU, Missouri, Tennessee or any other SEC team.

Here are four more non-conference games that would increase the SEC’s chances of winning not four, but fiveplayoff bids:

Texas in Michigan

Texas and Michigan are top-tier teams in the “Super Two” conferences. A loss in this game does not harm either team’s playoff chances. However, the result will influence opinions about the conference’s superiority and could be on the minds of the playoff selection committee.

LSU vs. Southern Cal (in Las Vegas)

These teams could be among those vying for one of the last at-large bids. So this outcome could affect more than the perception of the SEC and the Big Ten. This could directly factor into which team wins the final spot in the playoffs.

Alabama in Wisconsin

Ohio State and Michigan are the pride of the Big Ten, but Wisconsin, over the past two decades, has established itself as one of the best B1G programs at its next level. A dominant Alabama win would send the message that Wisconsin would be a glorified Kentucky in the SEC. A Badgers win would be a statement for the entire Big Ten.

UCLA at LSU

LSU’s schedule is full of landmines, including two games against Big Ten newcomers. West Coast could knock the Tigers out of playoff contention. Alternatively, LSU defeating USC and UCLA would cast the expanded Big Ten as an inflated second fiddle.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel: Fans from Tennessee to Alabama should hate Notre Dame in the 2024 season