By MARK LONG

Despite winning every game for nearly three months, No. 9 Notre Dame dropped a spot in the final College Football Playoff rankings Sunday and was left out of the 12-team bracket entirely.

It was a hard fall from the couch.

The Fighting Irish, which won its last 10 games by an average of nearly 30 points, watched championship weekend from afar, idle as an independent with no options to impress the selection committee one last time in a league title game.

It surely will prompt cries of injustice from coast to coast, with the loudest of those coming from South Bend, Indiana. Athletic director Pete Bevacqua and coach Marcus Freeman had taken the high road in recent weeks, avoiding too much lobbying and believing their winning streak would be enough to earn a berth over Alabama

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