LOS ANGELES -- With at least an 11-win campaign secured for just the fifth time in the past three decades Saturday evening inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in a back-and-forth, 49-35 win against rival USC, Notre Dame allowed itself to momentarily glance to its future -- later this month.
The Fighting Irish (11-1), winners of 10-straight games who bookended their 2024 regular season with road wins at Texas A&M and USC, have secured a berth in the first-ever, 12-team College Football Playoff.
Have the earned the right to be one of the four on-campus host programs when the CFP begins play Friday. Dec. 20?
Star quarterback Riley Leonard had a ready answer.
"Yeah, absolutely," Leonard said when asked about the Irish's case to host. "We've kind of proven that throughout the year. When you win the turnover margin like we've done, luckily defense came in clutch here, this game.
"But we obviously have proven ourselves throughout the remainder of the year. Ever since Week 2.
"I think we've got a lot left in the tank."
That inaugural expanded field will be revealed a week from today, after the Power Conference and Group of Five Conference championship games next weekend.
Notre Dame, which as third-year coach Marcus Freeman, last lost a game a dozen weeks ago -- at home, to middling MAC program Northern Illinois.
Notrre Dame now has clinched its best campaign under Freeman, who agreed to a six-year deal in December 2021 after Brian Kelly bolted Notre Dame to take over at LSU.
That Week 2 reference from Leonard, the former Duke star who noted his collegiate career opened with a 3-9 season, was September 7, 16-14 home defeat.
The Irish then swept their five Atlantic Coast Conference foes, ended the perfect seasons of both Army and Navy, each of which was nationally ranked, and vanquished the Trojans just before sunset on the West Coast.
A rare win in L.A. -- just Notre Dame's fifth this century -- wasn't enough to get Freeman to stump for the Irish.
"You know that doesn't matter to me," Freeman said. "The statement we made was we won our rivalry game versus a dang-good football team, and that's the only statement I wanted to make today."
It was the last statement that the schedule guaranteed the Irish an opportunity to deliver; yet, they again stacked victory while other programs who have crowded them in the CFP rankings tumbled to the side.
Ohio State's stunning home loss to five-loss Michigan thwarted the Buckeyes's shot for a Big Ten Championship slot and denied their quest to be the No. 1 overall seed.
Miami, a heavy favorite at a Syracuse program navigating Year 1 under Fran Brown, suffered its second loss in its last three games and, in the process, also got eliminated from ACC Championship contention.
The Hurricanes were No. 6 in last week's CFP Top 25 but assured a fall with this loss plus they now cannot find atonement next week in Charlotte, N.C., with the ACC crown on the line. Clemson and ACC newcomer SMU will seek that title.
The Irish, meanwhile, will be no lower than No. 4 in the CFP rankings Tuesday night and, potentially, could leap Penn State into the No. 3 slot. The Nittany Lions hammered Maryland Saturday as they clinched their spot in the Big Ten title opposite Oregon, but they also needed to erase a double-digit deficit and utilized overtime to get past USC.
The Trojans are one of two common opponents shared by Notre Dame and Penn State; both faced Purdue on the road. The Irish won by 59 points in mid-September against the Boilers; Penn State won by 39 last month.
Notre Dame outscored the the USC-Purdue combo 115-42; the Nittany Lions had an 82-40 edge.