Irish Breakdown

Measuring Notre Dame’s Success in the Modern Era: A Complex Challenge

Defining success for Notre Dame football in the modern era isn’t easy. How should the Fighting Irish be evaluated today?

John Kennedy

Notre Dame huddles up before the first round of the College Football Playoff between Notre Dame and Indiana at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in South Bend.
Notre Dame huddles up before the first round of the College Football Playoff between Notre Dame and Indiana at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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CFB has changed, so must our calculations of what counts as a strong year

Back when I was growing up, measuring the success or failure of a college football team's season was a fairly straightforward task that most folks agreed upon. If a team made it to a "major bowl game," and won, that was considered a successful year. The more prestigious the bowl game, the more successful the season was.

My how things have changed. With the expansion of the CFP to 12 teams, the calculations of what fans will consider a "successful" year must change. Certainly, making the CFP is an accomplishment, but what about what comes next?

Is the Notre Dame season a success due to the fact that it made the CFP field and won a game? What if Notre Dame were to lose to Georgia badly? How would that change your mind about how successful the season was?

Does your calculation lean exclusively on the number of games won in the playoff or against whom the games are played depending on the perceived credibility of teams that will vary greatly? This is a complicated and nuanced debate with no clear answer.

The sliding scale of success feels like a cop-out, but is fair

I feel like this is an issue college football fans and Notre Dame fans specifically may not ever fully agree on, and that's fine. To each their own. I feel that this modern calculation will be very circumstantially specific.

Some Irish fans will believe that 2024 is already a success due to the school collecting its first CFP win. Others may feel that Notre Dame must win multiple CFP games against what are considered "top level" teams to deem the campaign a success. This is all a matter of individual perspective.

Success on its own is a fairly vague term. That's where I think the sliding scale comes in. There are different levels to this now.

This is all new. There are no more apples-to-apples comparisons to the "old days." Certainly, Notre Dame winning its first CFP game in school history is a success.

But beating Georgia and whoever comes next to gain entry to the title game would be a different level of success altogether. This is a fair way to view things in my opinion.

There's only one thing that can ensure this debate doesn't need to be had, and that's winning the championship and being the last team standing. Ultimate success, which is the ultimate goal. But as far as anything short of this, let the debate rage on.

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John Kennedy
JOHN KENNEDY

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