(UHND.com) — Notre Dame moved up another spot in this week’s BCS rankings to 14th thanks to Boston College’s loss to Virginia Tech this past weekend. The Irish are still getting no love from the computer rankings which have the Irish ranked an average position of 22 despite being ranked 9th in both the human polls.
Notre Dame moved up a spot in all of the human polls this week ahead of Georgia who got upset by Florida, but only jumped Boston College who was ranked below them in the human polls in the BCS.
Underachieving opponents like Purdue, Pitt, and Michigan State are hurting the strength of schedule rank of the Irish. The lack of margin of victory in the computer equations is also hindering the Irish who rank 6th in Jeff Sagarin’s overall rankings, but only 19th in Sagarin’s rankings that do not use margin of victory.
For Notre Dame to qualify for the BCS, they will need to move up at least 2 more spots into the top 12 on top of winning out this season which looks very possible with a slate that includes Tennessee, Syracuse, Navy, and Stanford.
Notre Dame’s strength of schedule will not benefit much from the remaining opponents whose records are far from impressive. In order for the Irish to move up the remaining two spots needed, they will need to have a few teams lose in front of them to gain more ground in the human polls.
There are still quite a few matchups of teams that are both ranked ahead of the Irish right now that winning out should get the Irish in position to play in a BCS Bowl game. The most important thing for Notre Dame right now is winning out and finishing the final 4 games strong to put themselves in a position to be in the Top 12.
