Marcus Freeman had the kind of win that usually lets a coach breathe easy. Notre Dame knocked off No. 1 Miami, 31-24, on Saturday night in South Bend, and the Irish did it in a way that should have settled plenty of arguments.
Freeman wasn’t interested in letting the moment drift into a bigger conversation, though. The College Football Playoff Rankings? Not his concern.
"We don’t need to focus on it. We don’t need to talk about it," Freeman said. "Our job was to leave no doubt today, and they did."
That line carried extra weight because Notre Dame has already lived through the kind of ranking drama that can poison a season. Freeman had told his team before the Miami game that the CFP list could be used as fuel if they wanted it. The committee’s first release had the Irish at No. 11, seven spots behind the AP poll, and that immediately stirred up the same frustration Notre Dame felt a year ago.
Last season’s ending still hangs over this team. The Irish finished the 2025 regular season on a run, winning 10 straight to go 10-2.
They entered conference championship weekend at No. 10, two places ahead of Miami, with a playoff spot in sight. Neither team played that week, but when the final rankings arrived, Miami had jumped to No. 10 and Notre Dame had fallen to No. 11, the first team out.
The committee had ranked Notre Dame ahead of Miami for five straight weeks before finally siding with the head-to-head result. That 27-24 loss at Miami in Week 1 ended up costing the Irish months later, even though the committee had seemed willing to overlook it for most of the season. Notre Dame pushed back hard, then pulled out of bowl consideration and stayed home after a 10-2 finish.
This time, the result went the other way. Notre Dame beat Miami, and that should go a long way toward locking in a playoff berth.
"Yeah, we knew that our back was against the wall," safety Luke Talich said. "We knew that we had to win this game.
And we didn’t make it anything bigger than it was. We knew that this was a get-back game for us in a way.
We felt like we left it up to the judges last year. And we knew that we couldn’t do that this year."
The landscape is different now, too. Under the CFP’s 2026 selection protocol, Notre Dame is guaranteed a place in the 12-team field if it lands in the top 12 on Selection Sunday.
By that standard, last year’s No. 11 Irish would have been in.
What happens next is still worth watching. The committee’s next rankings come out Tuesday night, and Notre Dame’s rise could get even more interesting if a first-round bye starts to come into play.
Last week’s committee release drew plenty of attention because it dropped the Irish to No. 11 despite the AP and coaches polls placing them higher. Alabama, meanwhile, checked in at No. 5, four spots ahead of the AP.
For now, the win over the nation’s top-ranked team has moved Notre Dame’s playoff outlook sharply in the right direction. CBS Sports Forecasting and Projections bumped the Irish to 92.7% to make the field. It was also Notre Dame’s first win over an AP No. 1 team since Clemson in 2020.
Freeman still made it clear that Saturday’s celebration has a short shelf life.
"I want them to enjoy it, but tomorrow it doesn’t do anything for the future," Freeman said late Saturday night. "We’ve got to go and work starting tomorrow for the opportunity we have next Saturday.
That’s what’s important. No matter what you did today has nothing to do with what you’re going to do next Saturday.
The work you put in Monday through Friday will dictate how you play on Saturday."
The Irish are 8-1, but the résumé is still being built. They’ve played only two ranked opponents and split those games, with the 28-24 loss at BYU keeping them from climbing into the top 10 in last week’s CFP Rankings. Boston College, which comes to South Bend on Saturday, is next.
There’s also a chance Notre Dame can strengthen its case again in two weeks. SMU hosts one-loss Wake Forest this week, and if Wake Forest loses, the Mustangs could crack the top 25 before they visit Notre Dame on Nov.
- The Irish then finish the regular season at Syracuse.
One more number stands out: Notre Dame has won 12 straight games in November, the second-longest active streak in the country behind Oregon’s 13.
Talich said the mindset inside the program hasn’t changed, even after taking down No. 1.
"You know, since I’ve been on Notre Dame, I feel like almost all of our games have been playoff games," Talich said, who intercepted Darian Mensah and broke up a would-be game-tying touchdown pass. "You know, we kind of put ourselves in situations where we got to win.
And so that’s a great feeling. It puts pressure on you, but you know that you got to go out there and execute.
And so every game is a playoff game to us."
In Other News...
Miami Suddenly Faces A Bigger Test Than Just One Loss
A night that began with No. 1 on the scoreboard and in the rankings ended with Miami taking a 31-24 loss to Notre Dame and sliding to No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25. The bigger concern, though, may have come off the field, where the Hurricanes were already trying to absorb the absence of star receiver Malachi Toney, who sat out with a high ankle sprain.
Miami still controls a path back into the College Football Playoff conversation, but it is now a narrower one. The Hurricanes likely need to handle the rest of their schedule and add an ACC title to stay in the hunt, and doing that without Toney for the regular season makes the margin for error even thinner. [Read more 🡒]
Mario Cristobal Sounds Off After Miamis Most Infuriating Moment At Notre Dame
Mario Cristobal had plenty to say after Miamis trip to Notre Dame ended in frustration, and it started with the play that had the Hurricanes thinking they had forced one more swing at the finish. Elija Lofton appeared to haul in what looked like a game-tying touchdown catch, but officials ruled it incomplete after review, leaving Miami to settle for a 31-24 loss in a game that was already tight enough to hinge on a single call.
Cristobal made his disappointment clear in the postgame press conference, taking issue with the officiating while still congratulating Notre Dame on the win. For Miami, the sting was not just the final score but the way the ending unfolded, with a review that upheld the call and left the Hurricanes replaying what might have been in a loss that will linger well beyond Saturday night. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Faces One Big AP Poll Question After Weekend Shakeup
The weekend reshaped the top of the college football conversation in a hurry, and Miami was right in the middle of it. The Hurricanes loss to No. 4 Notre Dame came as part of a wild slate that also saw No. 11 Ohio State fall to unranked Oregon, while Alabama handled LSU and Tennessee took care of Kentucky, giving the AP poll voters plenty to sort through when the new rankings arrive.
For Miami, the bigger issue is not just the sting of one defeat, but what it means in the broader playoff picture. A No. 1 team losing to another highly ranked opponent is the kind of result that forces a fresh look at the hierarchy, and the Hurricanes now wait to see how much ground they give up in the national conversation after a weekend that changed the shape of the race. [Read more 🡒]