The Notre Dame football team sat back this past Saturday and ate their cheeseburgers during their final bye week of the season. In a weekend of mostly “meh” matchups, the final results once the clock went
sero were also mostly “meh” as well. Don’t get me wrong — I found Saturday to be highly entertaining, but overall nothing hardcore went down, and very little cause any disruption for the college football plyoff race.
Which brings us to the polls.
Certainly there were a couple of games that could have helped the Irish with their climb up the rankings, but from just a standard “spot” issue, Notre Dame remains the #12 team in the nation.
We are still about little over a week away from the first set of college football playoff rankings, so a lot of this may not mean much when those are released — but it doesn’t hurt to have the narratives in place.
USC climbs back into the AP Top 25 Poll and Navy finally makes an appearance in the Coaches Poll. The Pitt Panthers are also a team that could be closer to being ranked by the time Notre Dame plays them, and all of that only helps Notre Dame’s case with the committee (as well as Texas A&M and Miami winning).
In truth, however, Notre Dame has risen back to the point where the rankings jump will become quite difficult. It’s a little bit of a wall — although walls get blasted through all the time in this sport.
The Irish just need to keep winning, and win with some flavor, and the “in” part of the playoff will likely be just fine.
