What I find so odd is that the only reason — and it’s a very, very good reason — people aren’t talking about Notre Dame as a strong contender for national champion is that they lost to Northern Illinois.
Notre Dame would still seem very unlikely to be a national champion if they lost to a fairly high-quality opponent, like Georgia or Tennessee or Army. The fact they lost to such a low-quality opponent only emphasizes that you can’t judge a season based on one game. How many teams have been justly, reasonably eliminated from contention by much, much more understandable losses?
Even if Notre Dame was undefeated, and had the hardest strength of schedule, by NCAA rules, Notre Dame cannot be any higher than 5th in the playoffs.