Notre Dame headed to Cotton Bowl | Notre Dame | Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Notre Dame is headed to the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. The Irish earned the No. 3 seed in the CFP and will face No. 2 seed Clemson (13-0) at the the Cotton Bowl in Dallas for a trip to the national championship game.

The Irish and Tigers will meet on Dec. 29, while No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Oklahoma will also play at the Orange Bowl on the same day.

Notre Dame finished the regular season 12-0 for the second time under Brian Kelly and has been ranked No. 3 in the CFP poll five weeks in a row. Clemson has been No. 2 in each of the six polls the committee released beginning in Week 9.

The Irish will be playing in the Cotton Bowl for the eighth time in program history. Each of the previous seven appearances came between 1969 and 1993 and the Irish were 5-2 in those games. This will be the first time Notre Dame has faced a team not from Texas in the bowl.

Notre Dame and Clemson have met just three times, twice in the late-1970s and again in 2015. That 2015 matchup between the No. 6 Irish and the No. 12 Tigers at Clemson Memorial Stadium, in which both teams came in undefeated, featured a furious Notre Dame comeback in the fourth quarter that fell just short when the Irish failed to convert on a late two-point attempt. Clemson triumphed 24-22 on its way to a 14-1 season and runner-up finish in the second College Football Playoff.

That game is best known for a sound bite from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney after the game in which he said he'd told his team to "bring your own guts."

Clemson defeated Pittsburgh 42-10 on Saturday to win the ACC Championship. Notre Dame beat the Panthers 19-14 in South Bend earlier this season. After the matchup against Clemson, Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi was asked to compare the Tigers and Irish.

"There's no comparison," Narduzzi said. "Clemson is the best football team we have played this football season. They deserve to be where they are. They'll probably win a national championship, in my opinion. It's a good football team from the front end to the back end as far as the talent they got. Dabo's done an incredible job."

The Irish will get a chance to avenge that loss and reach the national championship game for the first time since 2012, when they fell to Alabama, 42-14.

Clemson is in the CFP for the fourth consecutive season. The Tigers beat Alabama to win the national championship in January 2017. The Crimson Tide defeated Clemson 24-6 in the Sugar Bowl last season, the third straight season those teams had met.

dsinn@jg.net

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