Notre Dame went from being in the National Championship late season, losing to Ohio State, to starting the 2025 season 0-2, to now being 6-2 on the season and still in the hunt for a spot in the College Football Playoff.
This certainly hasn't been exactly the season Notre Dame was hoping to have, but even after starting it off rough with a loss to Miami and then Texas A&M, both ranked teams, the Fighting Irish have gotten back on track. There is roughly a month left in the season, and looking at the remainder of Notre Dame's schedule, the Fighting Irish have a very real chance to get by without another loss, which would be great when it comes to the playoff.
The College Football Playoff selection committee is releasing its first rankings of the season on Tuesday, November 4, and Notre Dame will be watching closely to see what the committee thinks of them.
So, with the rankings coming out, here is a prediction of how the playoff rankings will shake out at the end of the season.
Team | Ranking | Why are they here? |
|---|---|---|
Ohio State Buckeyes | 1 | Big Ten Champion |
Texas A&M Aggies | 2 | SEC Champion |
Texas Tech Red Raiders | 3 | Big 12 Champion |
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | 4 | ACC Champion |
Indiana Hoosiers | 5 | At-large |
Alabama Crimson Tide | 6 | At-large |
Ole Miss Rebels | 7 | At-large |
Oregon Ducks | 8 | At-large |
BYU Cougars | 9 | At-large |
Georgia Bulldogs | 10 | At-large |
Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 11 | At-large |
Memphis Tigers | 12 | Group of Five Champion |
Notre Dame fans might panic a little bit seeing this prediction at first, but with the record that the Fighting Irish have, it seems pretty fair. Luckily, Notre Dame lost its two games early in the season, and the Aggies are the No. 3 team in the country right now, but the loss to Miami is unfortunately starting to look like a bad loss. Granted, the Fighting Irish lost those two games by a total of four points.
Being an independent automatically means that Notre Dame can't be one of the top four teams in the playoff with the automatic bid rules. However, the Fighting Irish also don't have too many ranked wins this season. Right now, with the way things are looking, their only ranked win will come over No. 20 USC.
Due to that as well, Notre Dame probably won't see a ranking much higher than No. 11, at least in this prediction, but they are in right now, and that is what should matter because it could be a lot worse.