Notre Dame football makes a dramatic jump in the latest College Football Playoff rankings while Indiana gets a justified reality check
The Fighting Irish and Miami Hurricanes now share a one-loss record. How did the committee sort out the pecking order this time around?
Notre Dame football and head coach Marcus Freeman made the dramatic jump in the latest College Football Playoff rankings that many expected. The Fighting Irish now sit at No. 5, ahead of the Miami Hurricanes, the Texas Longhorns, and an Indiana Hoosiers team that slid all the way down to No. 9 in the committee’s newest edition on Nov. 10.
I had predicted Notre Dame would land at No. 5, but I thought anywhere between five and seven was realistic. The bigger question was how the committee would order the teams around the Irish. That was always going to start with Miami.
Notre Dame and Miami share the one-loss spotlight
Notre Dame and Miami both have one loss. That alone was going to make this ranking a conversation point, especially after how things played out last season.
The head-to-head debate did not go in Notre Dame’s favor a year ago. The committee kept the team that actually won the game ranked below the other one for weeks, then flipped the order at the last minute. That decision created plenty of controversy, and I assumed the committee would not want a repeat of that mess.
It didn’t. Notre Dame is above Miami this time around, which is exactly where the Irish should be based on how both teams have played.
Notre Dame also checked in ahead of Texas. That isn’t shocking at all. The Longhorns have a couple of losses on their resume, so the Irish getting the nod there was the expected outcome.
Why Indiana’s drop to No. 9 is justified
The biggest takeaway from the latest rankings, if you ask me, is Indiana’s fall. The Hoosiers dropped all the way to No. 9 from No.4, and I think it’s completely justified.
I’ll admit I had a sneaking suspicion going in that the committee would keep Indiana ahead of Notre Dame. I can’t fully explain why I felt that way. The further we get into the season, the worse the Hoosiers’ schedule looks. It ages like milk.
Start with the close loss to Ohio State. At the time, that looked like a respectable result against a contender. Now the Buckeyes are reeling, sitting around No. 20 in this most recent ranking, which takes a lot of shine off that game.
From there, the résumé gets thin quickly:
– A close win at Michigan – A close win over Minnesota before the bye week – A six-point home win over Northwestern
That Northwestern game came before anyone thought the Wildcats had some real teeth to them. Indiana has spent much of the season getting out of games by the skin of its teeth. There isn’t a marquee win anywhere on the schedule.
The Hoosiers also aren’t an overly explosive team this year. Austin Stanley said that they remind him of a Big Ten version of Tennessee. They’re solid and capable of hanging around, but they lack the explosive edge that tends to separate the true contenders in November.
I think those parallels make sense.
Where this leaves the Fighting Irish
When you put all of that side by side, Notre Dame rightfully belongs above Texas, Miami, and Indiana. The committee looked past name value and early-season impressions, and it rewarded the team that has strengthened its resume as the year has gone on.
For the Irish, this ranking takes a massive step toward removing the doubt that hung over them after last season’s controversy. They no longer have to wonder whether the committee will hold the Miami debate against them. At least for now, the order makes sense.
There is still a lot of football left, and rankings will continue to shift as the schedule plays out. Notre Dame is in a strong spot right now, and the Irish control their own path as long as they keep winning. We will see how the committee handles the next reveal, but this week’s order was the right call for the Fighting Irish.
