The Pitt Panthers are taking center stage against Notre Dame with ESPN College GameDay in town next weekend. It’s a game that has begun to develop a must-win narrative for both sides. However, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi doesn’t see it that way.

At his recent press conference, Narduzzi actually pushed back, giving a pretty hilarious response to the must-win narrative. Instead, he insisted that it’s more important for the Panthers to win their ACC games coming home in the final stretch of the season.

“Absolutely not,” Pat Narduzzi said. “It is not an ACC game. I’m glad you brought that up. It’s not an ACC game. I’d gladly get beat 103 or 110-10 in that game. They could put 100 up on us as long as we win the next two after that.”

That 103 or 110-10 number wasn’t exactly random. Narduzzi had been asked earlier in the press conference about losing their last two games to Notre Dame by a combined score of 103-10. That came on the back of a 58-7 game in 2023 and a 45-3 game in 2020. For one of those, Notre Dame was led by head coach Marcus Freeman and the other was against Brian Kelly. Narduzzi, however, was the Pitt coach for both of those games.

In general, Narduzzi has had issues competing against Notre Dame. He’s 0-4 against the Irish since getting to Pitt. Only one of those was a one-score game.

At the same time, Narduzzi isn’t wrong that it’s hard to describe the Notre Dame game as a must-win for Pitt. The Panthers are currently 7-2 on the season and were ranked at just No. 24 in the initial CFP selection committee rankings. A new ranking will come out before their game against Notre Dame, and a win against the Irish would be a massive boost on their resume, but it still seems like an at-large bid into the CFP is a long shot for Pitt.

Winning the ACC isn’t a long shot method to make the CFP, though. It’s arguably the more practical path for Pitt too.

The challenge, which Narduzzi is well aware of, is that there are currently five ACC teams with only one conference loss. That number includes Pitt. Another two only have two conference losses. It’s a tight race for two spots in the ACC Championship Game. With the Panthers’ only loss in conference play coming to Louisville, who has two conference losses, they’re actually not in a bad spot. That is, unless they drop another conference game.

At the same time, Narduzzi and Pitt would still love to beat Notre Dame. That would, in turn, effectively end the Irish’s hopes of returning to the CFP. It would also act as a massive confidence boost going into those final ACC games, which include a major road test at Georgia Tech before returning home to wrap up against Miami, meaning a lot of the ACC’s chaos could be tied to how the Panthers play in the coming weeks.