The 2018 Cotton Bowl Classic was a

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bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on December 29, 2018, at

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable roof, retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. I ...

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...

. The 83rd

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

was a

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

semifinal with the winner to compete in the

2019 College Football Playoff National Championship The 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship was a college football bowl game that determined a national champion in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for the 2018 season. It was played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, ...

. It was one of the 2018–19 bowl games concluding the 2018 FBS football season. Sponsored by the

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, the game was officially known as the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.

Teams

The game featured second-ranked Clemson of the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) against third-ranked Notre Dame, an FBS independent. This was the first time that the two programs met in a bowl game; their more recent regular season meeting had been in 2015, won by Clemson. The only prior Cotton Bowl to feature two undefeated teams had been the 1948 edition, which ended in a 13–13 tie between

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and SMU.

Clemson Tigers

Clemson defeated Pitt in the

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on December 1, then received their bid to the Cotton Bowl with the release of final CFP rankings on December 2. The Tigers entered the bowl with a 13–0 record (8–0 in conference). On December 27, it was confirmed that three Clemson players, including starting defensive lineman

Dexter Lawrence Dexter Lawrence II (born November 12, 1997), nicknamed "Sexy Dexy", is an American football nose tackle for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Clemson. In 2015, he concluded his high schoo ...

, would be suspended from playing in the game by the NCAA, due to drug testing showing "trace amounts of a banned substance", which was identified as

ostarine Enobosarm, also known as ostarine or MK-2866, is an investigational selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) developed by GTx, Inc. for the treatment of conditions such as muscle wasting and osteoporosis, formerly under development by Merc ...

. This was Clemson's second Cotton Bowl bid in school history, following its appearance in the 1940 edition. It was also the first Cotton Bowl appearance by an active ACC member since Maryland's appearance in the 1977 edition.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame received their bid to the Cotton Bowl with the release of final CFP rankings on December 2. The independent Fighting Irish entered the bowl with a 12–0 record. This was Notre Dame's first Cotton Bowl berth since the 1994 edition and its eighth overall.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

References

External links

*
Box score
at

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{{Notre Dame Fighting Irish bowl game navbox

2018–19 College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl Classic

21st century in Arlington, Texas

Clemson Tigers football bowl games Notre Dame Fighting Irish football bowl games