Notre Dame exits its bye week knowing full well it controls its own destiny for a College Football Playoff berth. Win and you're in. All that's left to do is a

For much of the time after Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois, the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy was not empathetic. He consistently had the Irish in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, thus rendering their first season in the expanded College Football Playoff era a failure.

While the US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Poll both give us a glimpse at how good teams really are, Notre Dame and many other college football teams really want to know where they stand in front of the College Football Playoff committee.

Pete Bevacqua is on record that Notre Dame owes it to NBC to create compelling matchups to hold up its end of the agreement. NBC gets USC and Texas A&M at Notre Dame Stadium next year. It gets Miami and Wisconsin on the network in 2026. This year’s schedule didn’t deliver for NBC, but the next two will.

The first-year executive director of the College Football Playoff attended Notre Dame ’s opening night win at Texas A&M during Labor Day weekend, as the former Lieutenant General in the Air Force fills the role Bill Hancock occupied the previous 12 seasons. If the new 12-team CFP has a spokesman, it’s Clark.

Notre Dame is enjoying its second bye of the season this weekend, so the Irish will get a chance to rest and heel. We are also just three days away from the first College Football Playoff rankings coming out. Notre Dame will get four more chances to impress the committee, but to get the kind of seed needed the Irish could use some help.

With Week 10's end, we look back at key takeaways from exciting victories and surprising losses this past week. Louisville pulled off a historic win over then-No. 11 Clemson on Saturday, as it was the first time in the Dabo Swinney era that an unranked opponent beat the Tigers at home by double digits.

The SEC has a pair of marquee matchups and there are close spreads for the main contenders in the Big 12 race.