Author: Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh

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Notre Dame has risen to #5 in both the AP and Coaches Poll following their decisive 45-23 win at then-#24/23 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.  There also were key losses by previous-#5 LSU and previous-#7/#5 Oklahoma.

The first official College Football Playoff rankings are not due out for several weeks, set for release on Oct. 30.

While Notre Dame plays 10 power conference teams this year, the only Notre Dame opponent still ranked in the top-25 in the current AP poll is Michigan at #12/#13. Five Notre Dame opponents were ranked in the preseason.

Stanford, after losing to Utah, is at #24 in the coaches poll and still is getting votes in the AP. Virginia Tech dropped out after their loss to Notre Dame, yet the Hokies are still getting votes in the Coaches Poll, as is Syracuse.

Admittedly, in addition to Notre Dame already beating some of them, part of the reason for Notre Dame opponents fluctuating in the rankings is that a number of Notre Dame opponents play each other, with unpredictable results. For example, earlier in the season, Florida State was beaten by Syracuse. The Orangemen were still just outside the rankings a week ago after being edged out in the final minute at top-5 Clemson. However, Syracuse followed up by apparently having a let-down this past weekend against Notre Dame’s next opponent, Pittsburgh, with Syracuse getting edged out by Pitt in overtime.

Syracuse now does not even have votes in the AP, and is de facto #37 in the Coaches Poll. Yet Pitt, itself, still is barely sitting at .500.  So even if Notre Dame can find a way to beat Pitt next week, that is not necessarily as a big a resume-builder as one might hope. Meanwhile, Syracuse still awaits the Irish in late-November.

For their part, Virginia Tech also beat Florida State earlier in the year, and Notre Dame opponent Stanford beat Notre Dame opponent Southern Cal earlier in the year. Thankfully, while Stanford lost to Utah, this past weekend Southern Cal at least simply had a bye week. Meanwhile, Florida State lost to Miami (Fla.) — not on Notre Dame’s schedule this year — yet Florida State still showed some signs of life against the Hurricanes, losing by only one point.

The polls, of course, are still likely to ebb and flow a bit over the second half of the season.

There already is speculation about whether Notre Dame can run the table in the regular season and finish the regular season undefeated, with a likely bid in the four-team College Football Playoff.

A peek back at the standings at the end of last year’s regular season reveals that the only team left undefeated was Central Florida. To restate it, no major program — indeed, no other program at all besides Central Florida — was undefeated.

At this point in 2018, only seven teams in the top-15 are still undefeated, with a smattering of additional undefeated teams further down.

This year, if Notre Dame — as a major program, playing a major program kind of schedule — does manage to finish the 2018 regular season undefeated, they just might find themselves the only team in that position, or perhaps one of a few. It would be highly irregular for Notre Dame to be left out of the playoff in that instance. Alternatively, even if another team, or a few, do manage to stay unbeaten, it seems highly unlikely that there could be four.  It was not completely unheard of in the past, with a two-team unofficial title game, for an undefeated major program to be left out on rare occasions.  Yet one gathers that one purpose of having at least four teams in the playoff would be to avoid such a fiasco.

Interestingly, last year’s sole undefeated team, non-power-conference Central Florida itself is sitting undefeated at #10/#9. And Central Florida has at least two ranked opponents left on their schedule, conference foes Cincinnati and South Florida of the American Athletic Conference. Of potential interest might be how Notre Dame fares against Pitt next week, a common opponent who got blown out by Central Florida a week ago. Also interesting will be how Central Florida does against common opponent Navy in November.

So would both an undefeated Notre Dame and an undefeated Central Florida receive berths in the four-team College Football Playoff, shoving aside three power conference champions in the process, leaving spots for two other power conference champions? Now, technically, unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, there is not necessarily any conference affiliation with the College Football Playoff. Theoretically there could be four independents in the College Football Playoff, or four teams from a non-power conference.

Notre Dame, of course, has been considered a power conference team, such as by the SEC when pushing for members to schedule non-conference games against a power conference opponent.  And, this year, including Notre Dame’s partnership with the ACC, roughly half of Notre Dame’s schedule is against the ACC, and roughly a third of the schedule is against the PAC-12 and B1G/Big Ten.  The remaining three games are against the SEC, Navy and a MAC team.  So Notre Dame is partnered with the ACC and is playing ten power conference teams out of twelve.

In any event, as Lou Holtz might have pointed out years ago, the team’s job is not to beat everybody in the country. The team’s job is to beat the opponent they play next. And right now that is a dangerous Pitt team on the team on the rise, with the Panthers coming off an overtime win against a tough Syracuse squad.

(first-place votes in parentheses) (Notre Dame opponents marked in dark blue)