College Football Playoff: Notre Dame sticks in top ten

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team was number nine according to the College Football Playoff committee last week. Now, after a huge 28-3 win over Virginia on Saturday, they move up one spot into the eighth spot. They are in the top ten in mid-November which is really good when you consider the things being said about them earlier this season.

They are 9-1 on the season. The one loss is to Cincinnati who came in at number five in this week’s ranking. They only have one top-25 win (at the time) which was Wisconsin which came in their fourth game of the year.

It certainly isn’t a dominant Notre Dame team like we have seen in recent memory but they are better than we thought. It appears that they have found their identity as they have had some pretty big wins over the last few weeks.

The College Football Playoff top four is still in play but they need a lot to go their way. Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, and Ohio State remain in the top four once again. We already mentioned Cincinnati in the fifth spot. Michigan is in sixth and Michigan State is in seventh. It is a fantastic group of teams directly ahead of the Irish.

Notre Dame needs to keep winning to continue its high ranking for the CFP.

Notre Dame has two games remaining. They are hosting Georgia Tech this weekend and then have Stanford on the road one week after that. It is a finish that the Irish should be able to handle and end the season with an 11-1 record. It is going to be interesting to see where they land following the season if they do win out and have that 11-1 year on their resume.

They don’t have a conference title game to play in this season but all of the teams ahead of them do. Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State have each other to deal with which will take two of them out of the mix. Alabama will also play Georgia in the SEC Championship if each team wins out as well which makes things interesting in the top four.

Regardless of what happens, this Irish team is unique and should be proud of themselves. A lot of people wrote them off early in the year but here they are at 9-1 and in 8th place of the College Football Playoff ranking. Oh, and the one team that beat them is one of the seven teams ahead of them. Seeing the finish is certainly going to be a good time.