Notre Dame Football moves up in Coaches Poll, stay put in AP

Notre Dame football avoided dropping in the polls by not playing on Saturday.

The newest AP Top 25 and Amway Coaches polls are out. It looks like Notre Dame football didn’t really gain or lose much during the bye week, which is pretty much what you’d expect.

In the AP Top 25, the Irish stayed at No. 8 overall. Some thought they might have a decent chance of moving up in the poll thanks to Wisconsin’s stunning loss to Illinois. Instead, the Florida Gators leap-frogged the Irish and grabbed the No. 7 spot on the back of a sound win at South Carolina.

In the Amway Coaches Poll, Notre Dame did move up into the No. 7 spot because of the Wisconsin loss. The coaches did not allow any teams to jump over the Irish because of the bye week.

We’re still a couple of weeks from the release of the first College Football Playoff poll of the 2019 season. As it stands, Notre Dame appears to be in a good position, with most undefeated teams in front of them in the polls waiting on eventual matchups with one another. This is going to be one of those years where you only have one or two unbeaten teams, and that will keep the Irish in the playoff conversation — so long as they keep winning.

Notre Dame’s next opponent — Michigan — dropped three spots in the AP poll and four spots in the Coaches Poll after nearly knocking off Penn State on Saturday night. The Wolverines looked impressive in he second half against Penn State — especially on defense.

The game in Ann Arbor is a chance for Notre Dame to make a statement win for the College Football Playoff committee. Penn State seems to be getting a lot of love around the country. If Notre Dame can soundly defeat the Wolverines on the road and look better than Penn State did at home, it will greatly help their cause.

I know that sounds silly to many people who read those sort of statements, but that’s where this sport is right now. I’ve said it before: college football is essentially scored like figure skating. Style points and degree of difficulty matter as much as straight-up wins and losses.