Notre Dame Football No. 7 in Sports Illustrated Top 25

Another preseason poll has Notre Dame football ranked as a top ten team heading into the 2019 season.

I’ve learned over the past couple of seasons that a lot of Notre Dame football fans don’t care about any polls or rankings outside of those done by the College Football Playoff committee. They argue that the committee’s rankings are the only ones that matter and everything else is pointless.

I respectfully disagree — and if you are reading this — you likely do as well.

All polls matter, because they are a reflection of perception. A two-score Auburn win over Oregon doesn’t grab headlines on its own. A two-score Auburn win over an Oregon team that most have in the top ten of their meaningless polls, however, is something that helps dictate the narrative and numbers that the College Football Playoff committee works off of.

This brings us to the SI.com Top 25 poll, released earlier today. Sports Illustrated is still a voice of clout in the sporting world — college football included. When they publish, people take notice.

Notre Dame football comes in at No. 7 in SI’s preseason Top 25. That’s two spots higher than where the Irish opened in the Coaches Poll.

SI.com has the Irish ranked higher than every team on the 2019 Notre Dame football schedule with the exception of the Georgia Bulldogs — ranked No. 3

Other teams on Notre Dame’s schedule appearing in SI’s Top 25 are Michigan at No. 11, Virginia Tech at No. 22 and Stanford at No. 25.

As expected, Alabama and Clemson occupy the top two spots, but the SI poll is one of the few we’ve seen that has Alabama ahead of Clemson.

Oklahoma — the other team to make the College Football Playoff last season — comes in at No. 4.

The next major poll to be released will be the AP Top 25, which comes out on Monday, August 19th.