Notre Dame Checks In At #4 In Latest CFB Playoff Rankings
They’re coming home.
The Irish will need to wait one more week to find out who they’re playing, but it’s no surprise that Notre Dame has all but secured a home game for the College Football Playoffs.
The latest set of rankings were released on Tuesday evening with the Irish checking in at #4, one spot up from last week after Ohio State’s home loss to Michigan this past weekend bumped the Buckeyes down from #2 to #6.
It’s worth repeating that the rankings won’t mirror the seeds for the playoffs since the top four seeds are reserved for the highest four conference champions. Those won’t be finalized until this weekend’s league title games, but the mock bracket projects those winners.
#1 Oregon is projected to be the Big Ten Championship winner and would receive the top seed followed by projected SEC Champion and #2 Texas. Under the current projections, #8 SMU and #10 Boise State would jump into the third and fourth seeds respectively by winning ACC and Mountain West crowns.
Projected Big 12 champ Arizona State would make the 12-team playoff despite currently ranked #15, although they wouldn’t receive a first-round bye and would be seeded 12th.
The fourth-ranked Irish would be seeded sixth in the current hypothetical bracket and would be matched up against #11 Alabama in a first-round game in South Bend.
The winner of that game would face SMU in a quarterfinal matchup.
With their regular season complete, it’s difficult to imagine the Irish falling below the #6 seed. If anything, it’s more likely Notre Dame would jump up to the #5 seed in the event of Oregon defeating Penn State in the Big Ten Championship and/or Georgia beating Texas in the SEC Championship game.
Technically, there’s a scenario where the Irish could fall to #7. If Penn State beats Oregon and Texas loses a close one, those three teams could still be seeded ahead of Notre Dame along with Georgia and the two additional highest-ranking conference champs.
Regardless of where they’re ranked at the end, by virtue of being an Independent without the ability to be a conference champion, the Irish cannot be seeded higher than fifth.
- Oregon (12-0)
- Texas (11-1)
- Penn State (11-1)
- Notre Dame (11-1)
- Georgia (10-2)
- Ohio State (10-2)
- Tennessee (10-2)
- SMU (11-1)
- Indiana (11-1)
- Boise State (11-1)
- Alabama (9-3)
- Miami (10-2)
- Ole Miss (9-3)
- South Carolina (9-3)
- Arizona State (10-2)
- Iowa State (10-2)
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