Pitt HC Narduzzi Doesn't Care if Notre Dame Scores 100, 'Absolutely Not' Must-Win Game

Pittsburgh checked in at No. 24 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, meaning its best and perhaps only path to the 12-team field is by winning the ACC.

And head coach Pat Narduzzi knows Saturday's game against Notre Dame will have zero impact on that conference title race.

"Absolutely not," he told reporters Monday when asked if the upcoming contest was a "must win" for the Panthers. "It's not an ACC game. … They could put 100 up on us as long as we win the next two."

Pittsburgh has a daunting finish to the regular season with matchups against the Fighting Irish, Georgia Tech and Miami. It may be jarring to hear a coach be so direct about one game not meaning as much as the others, but Narduzzi is absolutely right.

The Panthers are 5-1 in the conference and tied with Georgia Tech, Virginia and SMU and just ahead of 4-1 Duke in the league standings. They will surely have to defeat the Yellow Jackets and Hurricanes to reach the ACC championship game, and then they would likely have to win that contest as well to make the CFP since they already have two losses.

That path is exactly the same with a win or loss against Notre Dame.

Even a 3-0 finish in the regular season would put the Panthers in a position where they likely had to win the ACC title game to get into the CFP given their earlier losses to West Virginia and Louisville. Frankly, a three-loss Pittsburgh team that isn't a conference champion will not have much of a case for inclusion in the 12-team field.

Still, it is rather unusual to hear a coach be so direct about the lack of urgency for a high-profile game against a national contender such as Notre Dame.

And there are plenty of at-large contenders in the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 who are hoping the two-loss Fighting Irish lose another game to open up one of those 12 spots that won't be happy to hear Narduzzi's comments.

Even if they are true.