Notre Dame opened the first College Football Playoff rankings at No. 11, a spot that leaves the Irish with very little room to breathe as the season enters its final month.
That placement stands out even more because Notre Dame is sitting at No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 6 in the Coaches Poll. The committee’s first pass once again came in lower on the Irish than the other major polls, continuing a familiar frustration after last year’s playoff snub.
The résumé is part of the debate. Notre Dame’s only loss came on a final-play defeat at No.
9 BYU, but the Irish still do not have a ranked win. That would normally explain some hesitation from the committee.
Still, the comparison to Indiana is hard to ignore. The Hoosiers are No. 4 despite also owning zero Top 25 wins, and they needed overtime to get past unranked Michigan and Minnesota in their two most recent games.
The path forward is clear enough: Notre Dame gets its biggest chance to change the conversation this weekend against Miami. The Hurricanes are 8-0 and sit at No. 1 in the initial rankings, so a win would give the Irish a major boost. If Notre Dame runs the table, it is a lock for the College Football Playoff.
The other side of the equation is just as stark. At No.
11, Notre Dame is in real danger of missing the playoff for a second straight season if it drops another game. Even if the Irish beat Miami, a later loss to Boston College, SMU or Syracuse - all unranked - would make the path much tougher.
For Notre Dame, the message is simple: take care of business over the final month.
The first rankings also brought plenty of head-scratching elsewhere. Alabama is No. 5 at 6-2, eight spots ahead of Tennessee despite the Volunteers’ 26-10 win over the Crimson Tide just two weeks ago.
Alabama has lost two of its last three and did not look especially sharp in its win over Texas A&M last weekend. Texas Tech is No. 15 even though it owns a pair of CFP victories.
Alabama is also one spot ahead of Kentucky, even though the Wildcats have the better record and the same number of CFP wins.
The full top 25 has Miami at No. 1, followed by Georgia, Utah and Indiana. Alabama checks in at No. 5, with Kentucky at No.
6, Texas at No. 7, UCLA at No.
8, BYU at No. 9 and Ole Miss at No. 10.
Notre Dame lands at No. 11, just ahead of Ohio State, Tennessee, LSU and Texas Tech. The rest of the rankings include Wake Forest, Houston, Missouri, Iowa, USC, South Carolina, Arizona, Oregon, Florida and Boise State.
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Notre Dame Just Reopened The Door To A Dream 5-Star Flip
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For the Irish, the visit matters because it gives them another chance to make a late impression on one of the top defensive prospects in the class. No new decision has been made, and Hendersons recruitment is expected to keep unfolding all the way to Signing Day in December, which leaves Notre Dame with a real opening if the weekend goes well. [Read more 🡒]