Notre Dame Checks In At #6 In Latest CFP Rankings
We’re still about three weeks away from the College Football Playoff rankings that actually matter, but based on the latest edition released on Tuesday night, Notre Dame remains firmly in the field and positioned to host a first-round playoff game.
The Irish moved up two spots from #8 in last week’s rankings to #6 this week. By virtue of being an Independent, Notre Dame cannot be seeded higher than #5 overall with the top four seeds reserved for the highest-ranking conference champions.
While the Irish are close to their ceiling from a rankings perspective, if they aren’t able to take care of business in their final two regular season games, against Army at Yankee Stadium this Saturday night and against USC in California next Saturday, they could tumble all of the way out of the Top 12.
The Top 5 remained the same this week with #1 and unbeaten Oregon leading the way followed by #2 Ohio State, #3 Texas, #4 Penn State and #5 Indiana. That will almost certainly not be the case next week with the Buckeyes and Hoosiers facing off against each other on Saturday.
The Irish were able to move up by virtue of #9 Tennessee and #14 BYU both losing last week and falling from the seventh and sixth spots, respectively.
The Vols fell to #11 while the Cougars fell out of the Top 12 entirely with #7 Alabama, #8 Miami, #9 Ole Miss, #10 Georgia, and #12 Boise State rounding out the finalists.
Notre Dame has run off eight straight wins since its loss to Northern Illinois back in September. But the Irish haven’t just won, they’ve been dominant, winning by an average of more 32 points during that stretch.
While the Irish are ranked #6 because the top four conference champions receive seeds 1-4, Miami and Boise State jump into that top four, knocking Notre Dame down to the 8th seed.
If this were to be the final bracket, which it will not be, the Irish would host a home game against Alabama in the first round of the playoffs with the winner headed to a Quarterfinal matchup against Oregon.
#13 SMU, #14 BYU, #15 Texas A&M and #16 Colorado are the first four teams out, but each will have the opportunity to move up over the final weeks of the season.
Undefeated Army checked in the rankings at #19 this week while 5-5 USC remains unranked.
And again, while Notre Dame doesn’t have room to go much higher than it already is, one loss and talk of hosting a game and wondering how conference championship weekend will impact the first-round opponent and potentially second-round opponent could be gone.
Maybe Irish head coach Marcus Freeman is on to something when he says, every game is the Super Bowl.
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