Notre Dame football: Irish No. 9 in AP Poll

Notre Dame football came in at No. 9 in the preseason AP poll, the same spot they were at in the first Coaches Poll of the season.

As the saying goes, “It is what it is.” That’s the story of Notre Dame football heading into the 2019 college football season.

The preseason AP Top 25 was released today, and the Fighting Irish were slotted at No. 9 — the same spot they occupied in the preseason coaches poll.

Media members and coaches apparently agree that the 2019 Notre Dame football team is the ninth best team in the country heading into the season.

That spot has pluses and minuses based on the schedule.

At No. 9, Notre Dame is in position to move into the conversation for the College Football Playoff with an upset win over Georgia. Unfortunately, a loss — even to a contender like Georgia — would send them tumbling down the polls into the lower teens. They would spend the rest of the season needing to win every game to claw back into the top ten, simultaneously hoping the teams in front of the falter.

That’s part of the reason why I’m not a fan of preseason polls. As I’ve said before, the members of the College Football Playoff Selection committee are human, and they are going to look a where teams are currently sitting in the polls whenever they run their numbers. It’s human nature.

At the end of the day, Notre Dame controls its own destiny as much as any other team in the nation. The Irish are already in a position where they basically need to run the table as an independent to get into the College Football Playoff. That said, starting the year ranked in the top ten of both major polls says that both the coaches and the media see Notre Dame as a serious threat to claim one of the New Year’s Six bowl spots.

Any way you cut it, playing in one of those games would be a successful season for a Notre Dame team coming off a playoff appearance.