re: Should this be Notre Dame's last chance?

They are at Georgia, at Michigan, and at Stanford next year. If they go 12-0 with that, they’ll be in the playoff deservingly no matter what happens vs Clemson this time. That’s a harder schedule than most teams playing full conference slates. In fact that is harder than Clemson’s 2019 schedule by a sizable margin, they only have at Cocks and Aggie at home as real games.