As of Sunday, the College Football Playoff’s national championship game was eight days away — but not too early to start checking on the health of the finalists.
Anthonie Knapp, a 6-foot-4, 291-pound freshman who is the starting left tackle for seventh-seeded Notre Dame (14-1), has been ruled out of the title game against eighth-seeded Ohio State (13-2) with an ankle injury, but Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman said senior right guard Rocco Spindler is on track to play.
Meanwhile, Ohio State senior defensive back Denzel Burke, who has been dealing with what Buckeyes coach Ryan Day called an “upper extremity issue,” will be available when the first 12-team edition of the CFP wraps up Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
The Irish have battled numerous injuries all season and a flu bug last week, but they have also won 13 straight games to position themselves to play for what would be the program’s 12th national championship but first since the 1988 season.
Day said his team — going for its first national title since winning the inaugural CFP in the 2014 season (when it was a four-team event, just like the nine editions that followed before this season’s expansion) — planned for the possibility of playing an extended season and attempted to put in some safeguards in place if it happened.