Notre Dame remained at #12 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll despite an 18-point road win over Georgia Tech on Saturday and several teams ahead of them losing. However, the most surprising move that prevented any Irish movement was BYU jumping the Irish this week after a last-second, three-point win over a team that is now below .500.
BYU entered the week ranked 13th before beating Oklahoma State at home by three points, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds remaining. With the loss, Oklahoma State is 3-4 on the season – hardly an impressive, resume-building win.
Not that the Irish were overly impressive in their win over Georgia Tech, as the Notre Dame offense stalled in the second half. An 18-point road win over a team that was 5-2 at the time is a little more impressive than needing a last-second touchdown to beat a .500 team on your own field.
The Cougars are undefeated, while the Irish have the blemish against Northern Illinois, but that is hardly a new data point. BYU was undefeated last weekend when they were ranked behind the Irish. It appears as though the voters are relitigating that loss to NIU.
The Irish could have moved up a position had BYU not leapfrogged them because Alabama lost its second game of the season to previously #11 Tennessee. The Volunteers moved up to #7 with their win over the Crimson Tide.
Another last-second win prevented further movement for Notre Dame when Iowa State came back to beat UCF after trailing for most of the game. The Cyclones fell one spot to #10. Top-ranked Texas fell to #5 after losing 30-15 to Georgia.
Notre Dame’s resume got padded a bit by Texas A&M’s win again. It improved to 6-1 on the season with a huge showdown with #8 LSU next weekend. Given what we’ve seen with teams jumping Notre Dame in recent weeks, it will be interesting to see how many voters put the Aggies ahead of the Irish if both were to win next weekend.
A win isn’t a given for Notre Dame, with the Irish facing #24 at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday. The Midshipmen and Army are the last remaining Notre Dame opponents currently ranked.
At this point, it doesn’t look like there is much of a chance that USC will work its way back into the top 25 before the Irish end the season in Los Angeles. The Trojans lost again this weekend and are currently 3-4 after losses to Minnesota, Penn State, and most recently, Maryland in the last three weeks.
They should have to win out to make the playoffs. Even at 11-1 they might not deserve it. The loss to NIU is inexcusable. The schedule is garbage this year which isn’t helping. They probably get in at 11-1 but there will be plenty of really good SEC teams at 10-2 that will have a much better case than an 11-1 ND.
Notre Dame is under pressure to compromise its academic standards to the point where the Irish have players who may not be able to spell their name. The forces of money don’t want the Notre Dame conscience.
So Notre Dame is fighting an uphill battle and will fight it until the Bogus Ten and the SEC decide finally to formally form a prison league. I would love to see fans flock to a more academically honest league where the athletes really are students.
For this season, Notre Dame has to reach 9 in each poll to get into the playoff.
ND will get no help in the polls because there not in a Conferance! We already know the coaches & media will vote for there Conf teams over ND or anybody not in the big 10 or sec. Its proven they vote for there own teams, coaches from the SEC have already said & proved that.
That is the way it should be. NotreDame should win out. They are better than the remaining teams on their schedule. Of course they had 10× the talent Northern Illinois did and lost. You have to show up every week prepared and play well or you will lose regardless of the opponent.
Looks to me that the “committee” wants to make sure coach Freeman gets the message that the only way the Irish gets a playoff spot is if they win out.. do not pass go (1 Loss is all you get!)