With one final opportunity to show the College Football Playoff committee it deserved a real look as one of the final four teams competing for a National Championship, No. 8 Notre Dame yet again fell flat.
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The Fighting Irish collapsed in the fourth quarter, allowing 21-unanswered points to the tune of a 38-20 drubbing at the hands of No. 21 Stanford.
Notre Dame's Brandon Wimbush completed 11-of-28 passes for 249 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. On the other end, K.J. Costello completed 14-of-22 passes for 176 yards and four touchdowns to lead Stanford to the win.
Notre Dame's two losses prior to Saturday came at the hands of Georgia (once ranked No. 1 in the country, now No. 7) and No. 2 Miami, which fell at the hands of Wake Forest on Friday.
The Fighting Irish may have had an outside shot to sneak in with an impressive performance on Saturday with conference championships next weekend and Alabama falling on Saturday to Auburn.
That simply isn't the case, and Brian Kelly will head into another offseason looking toward the next year.
Stanford will face off against USC in the Pac-12 Championship.
