Notre Dame preseason bowl projection

Projecting which bowl game Notre Dame will play in requires you to make a definitive statement about the Irish season.

Unlike other teams, Notre Dame doesn't have the luxury of finishing 6-6 and getting a bowl tie-in from a conference. The only tie-ins the Irish have as an independent are a BCS at-large clause and once-in-every-four-years agreement with the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. (Notre Dame can also replace the Big 12 in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl if that league doesn't qualify enough teams.)

So you have to decide whether the Irish are bound for: a great, BCS-worthy season; a 7-to-9 win, Champs Sports type of year; a 6-6 campaign that leaves them searching but not guaranteed a postseason slot; or a losing year.

This Notre Dame team looks too strong to have a losing record. A BCS berth is a realistic goal, given the returning talent from last year and the lack of any real titans on the schedule. But as I've written before, the schedule has very few breaks, and it's likely to cause the Irish to lose more than two games.

With all that in mind, I'm projecting Notre Dame to finish 9-3 and go to the Champs Sports Bowl, where it will face an ACC team. That would represent solid progress by the program in Year 2 under Brian Kelly but fall just short of fans' high expectations for this year's team.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/45104/notre-dame-preseason-bowl-projection

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