The consensus of ten major College Football websites predicts that the 2022 Irish are heading to a match up in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl against an SEC opponent. Nine of the ten named the Gator as the likely landing spot for the 8-4 Irish. The Gator is played in Jacksonville, Florida on December 30 with a 3:30 PM kickoff. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
The lone dissenting prediction was for the December 28th Holiday Bowl in San Diego against a Pac 12 opponent, predicted to be Utah.
The websites surveyed include: ESPN, The Athletic, SI, USA Today, CBS Sports, Action Network, College Football News, The Sporting News, Athlon, and 247.
The websites are split on a likely opponent. Three sites predict the Mississippi St. Bulldogs as a likely opponent. The other three predict the South Carolina Gamecocks as the Gator opponent.
20th ranked Mississippi St. is 8-4 and is coming off a 24-22 win over Ole Miss in their season finale. Their losses have come at the hands of Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and LSU. South Carolina, quarterbacked by Oklahoma transfer Spencer Rattler is also 8-4. The Gamecocks finished the regular season on a roll with wins over then 5th ranked Tennessee 63-38 and last week over 8th ranked Clemson, 31-30.
Other teams predicted as possible Gator Bowl opponents include Kentucky (7-5), Florida (6-6) and Ole Miss (8-4).
Notre Dame has played in the Gator Bowl three times in its history. In 1976 ND defeated Penn State 20-9. in 1998 the Irish lost to Georgia Tech, 35-28 and in 2002 ND lost to North Carolina State 28-6.
Among the two most commonly predicted opponents, the Irish are 3-1 against South Carolina and their most recent match up was in 1984. The Irish have never played Mississippi St.
CFP Bowl games and New Year’s Six games will be announced during a live ESPN broadcast starting at noon EDT Sunday. Announcements of the remaining match-ups will then trickle out the rest of Sunday afternoon.