It was a big Tuesday night for Notre Dame football, as it found out where it stands with the College Football Playoff committee.
The Irish made a big jump, going from No. 11 all the way to No. 5. While it is one spot short of having a first-round bye, Notre Dame would be in-line to host a home game, and we all remember the amazing atmosphere in 2024 when Indiana came to South Bend.
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Following the impressive theatrics against Miami this past weekend, if this spot holds for the Irish, having another high-stakes game in Notre Dame Stadium sounds like a pretty good time to me.
While the Irish are firmly in, the rankings as a whole raised a lot of questions for Notre Dame and others. Here are three thoughts on the Irish’s ranking in the latest CFP poll.
There is no consistency for Notre Dame or anyone in CFP rankings
If the committee thought that the Irish were a top-5 team last week, then they didn’t they rank them as such? Alabama, with two losses, moved up two spots to No. 3, Miami dropped to No. 7 while Indiana, who didn’t play this past weekend, was moved down to No. 9. Texas, also with two losses, moved up, as did Tennessee. There isn’t much sense to how they’ve gone about ranking teams, and don’t expect it to get much better going forward.
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Notre Dame has an inside track at a first-round bye
This season’s schedule worked out very well for Notre Dame, and while they would have loved to beat BYU, having multiple games before that and then Miami a few weeks later really helped the cause. They knew exactly what they had to do against the Hurricanes, and now can do the same thing with a first-round bye. If any of the four teams ahead of the Irish trip up, they’ll be in the range. The only fear is that a potential major conference winner could jump Notre Dame, but you have to like the spot it is in at the moment.
Notre Dame at No. 5 is a great seed
Look, it’s not a bye, but it’s almost a given win over Boise State. The two teams played each other last year, with the Irish coming out on top, 28-7. I’d expect a similar result in the CFP, as the Broncos true rankings is No. 24. They’re a solid team, but nowhere near the same level as Notre Dame. It would be a perfect opening game, where the young players could get their feet wet in a CFP environment. UCLA would be next, and you’d have to believe that the Irish would be favorites in that game as well. No. 1 Georgia would be lurking next, so it’d be a good bet that if this was the final bracket, that Notre Dame should be, at minimum, heading to the semifinals.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Three thoughts on Notre Dame’s spot in the second CFP rankings of ’26
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