The AP Top 25 and the College Football Playoff rankings rarely line up perfectly, but Week 11 made the gap impossible to miss.
That matters because the CFP board is the one that ultimately shapes the postseason picture - national seeds, home-field assignments and byes all flow from those rankings. So when the AP and the committee see the same teams differently, it is more than a cosmetic disagreement.
Alabama is one of the clearest examples. The Crimson Tide landed at No. 7 in the AP poll, but the committee pushed them all the way up to No.
- The selection group made its stance obvious, leaning hard on Alabama’s overall strength of record even after losses to Georgia and Tennessee.
AP voters were less impressed by what Alabama has shown lately, though they still weighed the close loss to Georgia, the convincing win over Kentucky that has aged well, and the dominant performance at LSU.
Notre Dame also split the two rankings, though in a different way. The Irish are No. 3 in the AP Top 25 and No. 5 in the CFP rankings.
Before last Saturday, Notre Dame had been No. 4 in the AP poll, and a four-point loss at BYU only dropped them two spots there. The committee, though, was much tougher on Notre Dame’s schedule, noting that the Irish had no wins against ranked opponents and placing them at No.
- Then came the win over No.
1 Miami, which forced a major adjustment and sent Notre Dame up seven spots in the committee’s eyes after that surge in strength of record.
Miami took a hit from both sides, but not the same one. The Hurricanes checked in at No. 5 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the CFP rankings.
The loss at Notre Dame and the injury to star wide receiver Malachi Toney were always going to hurt, but the committee had extra work to do because it also had to elevate Notre Dame and then place Miami behind the Irish. AP voters didn’t face that same balancing act, since they already had Notre Dame in the top five, so Miami’s slide on that ballot was less severe.
Indiana is another team where the committee and AP are looking at the same résumé and seeing different things. The Hoosiers are No. 6 in the AP poll, but they fell to No. 9 in the CFP rankings after sitting at No. 4 a week ago.
They didn’t even play, yet the movement around them and a fresh concern about strength of schedule changed the committee’s view. Indiana now gets a chance to answer that against USC on Saturday.
BYU’s situation is different again. Two losses - first at unranked UCF and then at undefeated, highly ranked Utah - created a tricky call for voters.
The committee kept the Cougars in the top ten at No. 10, ahead of reigning Big 12 champion Texas Tech, which is No. 12 in the CFP ranking and still outside the bubble. The AP poll, meanwhile, dropped BYU below the Red Raiders.
If Texas Tech keeps winning, that order could become a bigger issue down the line.
In Other News...
Notre Dame Independence Suddenly Looks Smarter Than Ever
The College Football Playoffs move from 12 teams to 24 starting next year has already sent a ripple through the sport, and it has only sharpened the appeal of Notre Dames long-standing independence. As the Autonomy 4 conferences move to eliminate their championship games, the old arguments about needing a league title to secure a playoff spot suddenly look a lot different, especially for a program that has never depended on a conference structure to define its path.
Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz have both publicly raised questions about whether conferences still matter in the same way under the new format, and that kind of debate is exactly the sort of thing Notre Dame has been insulated from for years. With schools like Miami also weighing what these changes mean for conference affiliation and structure, the Irish find themselves in a familiar but newly relevant position: outside the system, yet perhaps better positioned than ever to benefit from it. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Gets Big Wins, A Fresh Freeman Hint And Heartbreak
A busy stretch around Notre Dame delivered plenty to talk about, starting with hockey, where Sammy Nelson scored twice and buried the overtime winner in a 3-2 upset of No. 4 Michigan State. The Irish have now won three straight, and freshman goalie Patrick Quinlan kept the surge going with 33 saves for his third consecutive victory, a strong sign that the team is finding real traction at both ends of the ice.
The momentum carried into mens basketball, where Ethan Roberts poured in a career-high 36 points and matched the program mark for made 3-pointers in a game during a 99-59 rout of South Carolina State. On the football side, Marcus Freeman offered an encouraging update on young cornerbacks Khary Adams and Ayden Pouncey while also leaving the door open on Brauntae Johnsons recovery, even as the program was also dealing with the sudden passing of broadcaster Dan Hicks. [Read more 🡒]
Former Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman Is Headed For A Very Different Spotlight
Sam Hartmans football path has taken another unexpected turn, this time far from the practice field. The former Notre Dame quarterback, now on the Washington Commanders practice squad, has been announced as the new star of ABCs "The Bachelor" for its 30th season, adding a very different kind of attention to a player who was already familiar to Irish fans from his stops at Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
For Notre Dame followers, it is one more reminder that Hartmans post-college life is unfolding in unusual fashion. He is still attached to Washington as a practice squad quarterback, but his next major public role will come on television when the new season of "The Bachelor" premieres in March, putting him in a spotlight that has little to do with football and everything to do with prime-time exposure. [Read more 🡒]