Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 15, 2025 5 Y ou'd think the members of the College Football Playoff commit- tee were going around purposely running over people's dogs the way the public reacted to Notre Dame's place- ment in the first CFP rankings of the 2025 season. Folks were not pleased with Notre Dame (6-2) coming in at No. 10 in the Nov. 4 poll, taking the last at-large spot in the 12-team field, to say the least. On3's own Ari Wasserman called Notre Dame's placement possibly "the most misplaced" he's ever seen in a first set of rankings over the dozen years this sys- tem has been in existence. If you searched "Notre Dame" on X the day after the rank- ings reveal, you found all kinds of quips and quarrels about how the Irish were pampered and pandered to in the poll. Wasserman was a mouthpiece with a platform for that narrative. "Notre Dame is over-ranked here, man," Wasserman said. "That's not the right place for them. And I'm not say- ing they shouldn't make the playoff and if they run the table they won't make the playoff, but where we are right now, what is the No. 1 thing Notre Dame has going for it to be a top-10 team right now? That they've won six in a row?" Per CFP committee chair Mack Rhoades, the half a dozen consecutive victories had a lot to do with it. One of those wins was over Southern Cal, the committee's No. 19 team in the first CFP poll of the year. That was a 10-point triumph over the Trojans, and it was the tightest margin of victory in those six matchups. Notre Dame was beat- ing teams badly, just like it did last year when it got in as an at-large team as the No. 7 seed in the playoff bracket. Rhoades cited the Irish's ever-im- proving defense, which gave up just one touchdown in four of five games after giving up at least three in all three of Notre Dame's first trio of games. He also made it clear the Irish have a high-pow- ered offense run by one of the best quar- terback stories in college football this year in redshirt freshman CJ Carr and one of the best players in college football this year in junior tailback Jeremiyah Love. Lots to love about the Irish. Sub- jectivity and the eye test have always played an integral part in college foot- ball rankings. That just is what it is. And as of early November, Notre Dame was passing the eye test with flying colors. "We think Notre Dame is a really solid football team, both sides of the ball," Rhoades said. Hogwash, according to ESPN analyst Jordan Rodgers, who called Notre Dame being ranked ahead of No. 11 Texas and No. 12 Oklahoma "absurd." "That shows ya that they're look- ing at the wrong things," Rodgers said. "They're not valuing wins on the field as much as they were, oh, the 'eye test.'" It's understandable for fans and me- dia to want every poll to play out the way they think it should, but that's rarely the case. Every set of rankings from now until early December shape the way things could unfold in the fi- nal poll prior to the postseason, sure, but the reality is that final one is the hierarchy that matters more than any other. Ultimately, it's the only one that matters. If Texas and Oklahoma are still two-loss teams at that time, then they'll have earned their space ahead of two- loss Notre Dame by way of more quality wins. There isn't any denying that, even if you've got blue and gold blinders on. People would be under a lot less stress if they saved their venting and frustra- tions for a month from now when teams like Texas (remaining schedule — at No. 5 Georgia, home versus Arkansas and No. 3 Texas A&M) and Oklahoma (at No. 4 Alabama, home versus No. 22 Missouri and Arkansas) could definitively have a better résumé than Notre Dame. Or, more likely, could definitively be out of the running for a CFP spot. So much will happen in November that will make it so that we all will hardly remember what the first CFP poll looked like in the first place. Maybe we won't remember at all, unless you've got an agenda and are looking for an "I told you so" moment. The only "I told you so" moment Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman is looking for is when his team is 10-2 and safely in the playoff field for having taken care of business from mid-September forward. It'll take some convincing wins down the stretch to get there given the schedule doesn't offer up any signature victory opportunities, but that's proba- bly why Freeman couldn't have cared less about the rankings on the eve of when they were set to release. He basically said the rankings aren't of any use inside his locker room. He's more worried about the actual games. "If I sit in my office and try to come up with some way to utilize our ranking to use it as motivation," Freeman said, "I'm wasting time that I need to be re- ally using to prepare for this upcoming game on Saturday." The public is wasting its time bickering about where Notre Dame is situated. It'll all work itself out in the long run. And if you're someone who still thinks the Irish shouldn't be in at 10-2 come December regardless, there's a wall outside your home you can argue with. You'd look crazy to your neighbors, but your stance is already crazy to begin with. ✦ Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame squad started out at No. 10 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the year released Nov. 4. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Initial CFP Ranking Rankles Irish Detractors Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA