Notre Dame Continues to Climb, Jumps Two Spots in Most Recent AP Poll
Notre Dame’s 31-24 win over then #15 ranked Louisville helped the Fighting Irish move up two spots in the most recent AP Poll released Sunday. The Irish entered the weekend ranked 16th before taking down the Cardinals in Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday. They exit the weekend ranked 14th, heading into their bye week.
Notre Dame has moved up four spots in the AP Poll since its head-scratching loss to Northern Illinois in the home opener. They moved up one spot after the blowout of Purdue and another spot last week before moving two spots this week.
It seems the AP voters didn’t think too highly of Louisville; otherwise, the Irish might have moved up more. LSU, one spot ahead of Notre Dame, for instance, does not yet have a win over a top-25 opponent. Ole Miss, two spots ahead of the Irish, doesn’t either, and they just lost to unranked Kentucky. Chalk that up to the obvious SEC media bias and the stench of the loss to NIU lingering with another loss from the Huskies this weekend.
With no game featuring two ranked teams this coming weekend, Notre Dame’s only path to moving up more in the rankings this weekend will be via an upset with the Irish idle.
Louisville dropped seven spots this week to #22 after losing to Notre Dame. The Cardinals face two unranked opponents before hosting Miami on October 19. They’ll have a chance to move back up a few spots before a potentially massive showdown with the Hurricanes, who survived an overturned Hail Mary to beat Virginia Tech on Friday night.
Notre Dame is the only team in the country right now with two wins over ranked opponents. Texas A&M remains ranked #25 after beating Arkansas in Jerry World this weekend. The Aggies were jumped by Indiana but stayed just inside the top 25. They host #9 Missouri this coming weekend, so they’ll either make a big jump or fall out of the rankings completely next week.
Notre Dame’s only remaining ranked opponent is USC, at #11. The Trojans fell behind early to Wisconsin before winning comfortably, following their loss to Michigan two weeks ago. USC travels to Minnesota next weekend before a huge matchup with Penn State in Los Angeles in two weeks.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
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There’s definitely SEC media bias. But ND can’t complain about their ranking after losing to NIU. There’s no way to put lipstick on that pig. That’s going to drag them down the entire season. If they win out, based on how things are looking and the number of spots now available, they’ll probably get a playoff game. But it’ll likely be at the bottom half of the seeding somewhere.
I wonder, too, is the AP Poll even really relevant anymore. Right now people are watching it only because there’s no playoff rankings yet. But for the last several years once those start up then the AP poll almost disappears from the conversation. And in all honesty I wonder if that trend didn’t start in the BCS era, when they demanded they be removed from consideration in the BCS rankings. At the time I understand their reasoning, but I wonder if they would have been better off negotiating their inclusion. Because now the AP Poll doesn’t factor at all into who the NC Champion is. Conceivably, yes, you could have an AP National Champion that’s different from the CFB Playoff Champion, however unlikely. But would that really mean a whole lot? Perhaps, if way back when, they stayed in the BCS mix, maybe today they would still be a factor in the Playoffs.
Well, in any event, ND has a lot of work to do this season still because if they get into the Playoffs as they are, they will get embarrassed.