Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly sees potential for playoff expansion

Published Dec. 6, 2015 8:28 p.m. ET

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Notre Dame managed to stay in the national championship discussion until the end of its last game this season. 

Stanford ended the title hopes for coach Brian Kelly's team with a last-second field goal, and it turned out the twice-beaten Cardinal was already more or less out of the running, too, as upsets in other conferences never materialized on championship weekend. 

But at least No. 6 Stanford got to play on the last weekend and improve its resume, something that was not true of the eighth-ranked Fighting Irish or the team they will play in the Fiesta Bowl, No. 7 Ohio State. 

And yet Kelly said Sunday he could see a day all three are part of the postseason along with the top four of Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma as well as No. 5 Iowa. 

“Clearly these eight teams are all very good football teams and I don’t know if we’ll be able to hold at four, but I think we’ve got it right right now," Kelly said on a teleconference to preview the Fiesta Bowl. "I don’t know that the committee is interested in going to eight right now, but I think If college football continues on the path it is it’s going to be more and more difficult to keep it at four.” 

With the Fighting Irish's only losses coming against the top-ranked Tigers and Stanford -- both on the road -- it did not come as much surprise Kelly would have positive thoughts about expanding the field some day, but he did not try to make the case his team got any sort of raw deal. 

“I think where we are obviously is certainly better than where we were when we were just dealing with computers," Kelly said, referring to the BCS era that ended prior to last season. "I think as football teams continue to invest and universities continue to invest you’re going to see a deeper and deeper (field of) college football teams." 

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