Notre Dame Poll Watch: Week 10

The Notre Dame Poll Watch is going to be hitting a frenzied pace this week. While it has felt like a slow climb back up the polls after the loss to Clemson, the Irish have been steady climbers as they now sit at #8 in the coaches poll and #9 in the AP Poll.

And here ends the mystery- well some of it anyway. On Tuesday, the College Football Playoff selection committee will release its first rankings for the 2015 season. We can sit here and guess all we want about how they will evaluate the teams, but if it is anything like last year, Jeff Long will be sure to adjust the importance level of the details to mirror their poll.

It’s fairly frustrating.

Oct 24, 2015; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; LSU Tigers running back Leonard Fournette (7) runs against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers during the first half of a game at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

However… The Fighting Irish can bypass most of that frustration by merely winning out the rest of the way. As simple as that may sound, there are enough games between the top teams that will help sort this out. This week alone sees several games (TCU vs Oklahoma State, Florida State vs Clemson, and LSU vs Alabama) that will help sort this all out.

Here’s a couple of things that I’m fairly positive about:

1. There won’t be two teams from the same conference in the playoffs.
2. There will be no 2 loss teams in the playoffs.
3. There will be no team that failed to win their division in their conference in the playoff.

The month of November will prove to be an exciting one as this mess of, what appears to be, 12 or 13 teams gets narrowed down to 4. If Notre Dame wins out, and I had to take a guess of what MIGHT be the FINAL four teams, I could see a top 4 of:

1. Ohio State
2. Clemson
3. LSU
4. Notre Dame

There is no real way to truly get even a decent grasp on what might be- especially in a year that has so much parity throughout the country. It could just as easily see this top 4:

1. Baylor
2. Alabama
3. Stanford
4. Michigan State

Buckle up. The Notre Dame Poll Watch is on full alert and starting Tuesday the debate and the stakes gets hotter and higher.