Both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Polls were released on Sunday, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish came in at #21 in both sets of rankings.
Cool.
The biggest question for the Irish really isn’t IF they can run the table and end the season with a 10-2 record — it’s about where their ranking ceiling is with two losses and likely no ranked wins when it’s all said and done.
A few quick things here…
- Neither poll listed is the College Football Playoff poll, BUT don’t expect the rankings to be much different when they do come out.
- There are still plenty of games left in the schedule for this to get messy, and this year, messy would benefit the Irish.
- I don’t know what the ceiling will be for this Notre Dame team, but because of the auto-bids and the Group of 4 addition, Notre Dame likely needs to be at least #10 to be safe.
Obviously we have a long way to go and there really is NO use in debating people like Bud Elliott that declare
definitive statements after week 5. I know better, and so should he — but we all have a job to do. All we can really do is sit back and watch how this all unfolds. One of the funs things about a weak schedule like Notre Dame’s was last year, and their remaining schedule is this year, is that the Irish have to beat the snot out of everyone they play — and they know it.
Notre Dame was able to accept that challenge last season, and so far after the first two lossess, the first two wins were by a combined score of 112-43. They jusyt need to keep doing that and they’ll probably be fine.
