Notre Dame fans can watch live online as the Fighting Irish travel to Stanford, California, to face the Cardinal in the final game of the 2015 college football regular season for both teams, a game that is not only one that the Irish must win, but one they must win in convincing fashion if they want to revive their quickly fading hopes of qualifying for the College Football Playoff — and at least a chance at their first national championship since 1988, a long wait for the legendary football program which has a record 11 consensus national titles already.
Stanford also has aspirations of getting into the elite quartet selected to play for a national championship under the CFB system — but the Cardinal at 9-2 would need a number of ranked teams in competing conferences to suffer season-ending upsets for that to happen. And of course, Stanford — ranked ninth on the CFB standings — would need to upset sixth-ranked Notre Dame.
The Irish had edged into the fourth and final spot after convincing wins over Wake Forest and Pittsburgh in the previous two weeks. But last Saturday Notre Dame gave up five turnovers, barely pushing past rival Boston College — who came into the game at 3-7 — by a 19-16 score in a game played in Boston at the home of the Red Sox, Fenway Park.
Watch video highlights of the Fenway Park Notre Dame victory over Boston College in the video below.
The awkward victory over what should have been an easily beatable opponent caused the Irish to fall out of the four playoff qualifying spots to Number Six. A loss to Stanford on Saturday ends the Notre Dame playoff campaign for 2015.
“The committee is out of my hands, it’s out of our players’ hands.” Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly said this week. “All we want to do is put ourselves in a position to be considered. We feel like we need to win another game to still be considered.”
To find out how to watch the Notre Dame vs. Stanford College Football Playoff qualification elimination game live online, see the streaming link in the final paragraph of this article. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time at Stanford Stadium — 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
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Much of the responsibility for scoring the upset over Notre Dame falls on the shoulders of 23-year-old Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan, a fifth-year senior who grew up a Notre Dame fan thanks to nearly 25 family members who have graduated from the respected South Bend, Indiana, institution.
For Notre Dame, 20-year-old linebacker Jaylon Smith , who leads the team with 98 tackles including 60 solo tackles, will be assigned to stop Stanford ball carrier Christian McCaffrey, a leading Heisman Trophy candidate who leads the nation in all-purpose yards and currently ranks second in rushing yards.
Saturday’s game will be the 30th meeting between Notre Dame and Stanford, who first faced each other in 1925. But the 2015 showdown will be the fifth straight, in five seasons, that both teams have been nationally ranked coming into the game.
The last time the two teams squared off was in South Bend on October 4 of last year. Notre Dame came out on top in that game 17-14, and lead the all-time series 19-10 despite losing four of the last six meetings with the Cardinal.
Watch the Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. the Stanford Cardinal battle for a College Football Playoff spot live online from Stanford Stadium on the Stanford University campus in California, by going to Fox Sports Go at this link , or by downloading the Fox Sports Go app to watch on tablet computers and smartphones. Fox Sports Go also streams live on the Amazon Fire TV device, allowing fans to watch the 30th Notre Dame vs. Stanford game since 1925 live online on their TV sets.
[Featured Photo By Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images]
