Finally above board
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish took care of business on the road and in a rivalry game on Saturday by taking down Southern cal, 49-35. Was the game perfect? OF COURSE IT WAS — please read the first sentence. The win guaranteed a home game in the first round of the college football playoff.
So that was good.
So how did the Irish opponents do this week?
Texas A&M Aggies — LOST vs #2 Texas Longhorns (8-4) —
Northern Illinois — WON vs Central Michigan Chippewas (7-5) —
Purdue Boilermakers — LOST vs #9 Indiana Hoosiers (1-11) —
Miami Redhawks — WON vs Bowling Green Falcons (8-4) —
Louisville Cardinals — WON vs Kentucky Wildcats (8-4) —
Stanford Cardinal — LOST vs San Jose State Spartans (3-9) —
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets — LOST vs Georgia Bulldogs (7-5) —
Navy Midshipmen — WON vs East Carolina Pirates (8-3) —
Florida State Seminoles — LOST vs Florida Gators (2-10) —
Virginia Cavaliers — LOST vs Virginia Tech Hokies (5-7) —
#24 Army Black Knights — WON vs UTSA Roadrunners (10-1) —
USC Trojans — LOST vs Notre Dame (6-6) —
Notre Dame moved up one spot in both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll this week, and I continue to be amazed at the false crowning of the Penn State Nittany Lions — who are now headed to the Big 10 Championship game to face #1 Oregon Ducks after the Michigan Wolverines beat the Ohio State Buckeyes. I’m not amazed that college football fans are also up in arms about Notre Dame’s ranking while also totally forgetting they dropped to #18 from #5 — and with blowout win after blowout win to get to #4.
Obviously, the playoff rankings are what’s important here — but I will always remind people that the committee doesn’t give post playoff rankings. Those bulletpoints of “top 5” or “top 10” finishes come from the AP.
