Where does Notre Dame football land in ESPN’s ‘Way-Too-Early’ Top-25?
ESPN released its way-too-early top-25 for the 2022 season, so where does Notre Dame football land in this very early ranking?
Lately, some college football analysts have been pushing for polls to stop coming out before October. Preseason and early season polls simply rely too much on guesswork in a sport where rosters turn over quickly and you’re often reliant on 18, 19, and 20-year-old players.
However, they’re not going to go away because they simply provide too much entertainment. Fans love them, with debates being a key part of what makes college football great. So, polls are already coming out with 2022 college football polls, like ESPN’s way-too-early top-25 that has Notre Dame ranked 6th.
The Irish finished 2022 8th in the AP Poll and 9th in the Coaches Poll. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee doesn’t put out an end-of-the-year poll, but they did have Notre Dame ranked 5th going into bowl season. That’s where the AP and Coaches Polls also ranked the Irish heading into bowl season.
Notre Dame football expected to be as good as 2021?
If there is one big takeaway from that, it’s that ESPN’s poll expects Notre Dame to be just about as good as they were last season. That, or the teams around them in the rankings shake out slightly differently to leave Notre Dame in the same spot.
However, when you look at the context around Notre Dame’s 2022 season, this might actually be high. The Irish enter 2022 with a first-time head coach and a massive unknown at the quarterback position. There is still plenty of talent, but those are huge questions that need to be answered.
On top of that, the schedule is tough, really tough. Ohio State, Clemson, and Lincoln Riley’s USC tough. Winning double digit games will be a massive accomplishment in year one for Marcus Freeman.
Of course, Notre Dame isn’t the only team with a questionable ranking in these polls. Just behind the Irish sits NC State. The logic seems to be that they have a lot of starters coming back, but that’s also not great logic when you look deeper at things. USC is also sitting at 12, which seems to be on the back of Lincoln Riley and a couple of Oklahoma transfers, but that roster still has tons of issues. Besides, whatever happened to proving it on the field first? Meanwhile, Baylor is being disrespected down at 18.