Notre Dame passing BYU's ranking isn’t controversial if you actually watched the games

When the AP Top 25 dropped Sunday afternoon, it delivered exactly what everyone should have expected. With BYU losing to UCF, 39-31, in double overtime on Saturday night, the Cougars not only dropped, but also fell behind Notre Dame.

Should BYU be falling out of the No. 2 spot and down quite a few rungs? After all, the Knights were unranked when the two teams played. UCF has been so unimpressive this season that even getting an upset win over the second-ranked team in the country didn't earn them any AP votes. And yet, there's more than a little bellyaching about the Irish getting ranked ahead of the Cougars.

This week's AP Top 25 did drop Notre Dame one spot, despite not playing a game. However, the drop wasn't really that bad, going from No. 4 to No. 5 as the Irish are still very safely in the College Football Playoff field and still within shouting distance of a double bye.

BYU meanwhile, slid from No. 2 to No. 8, a six spot skid. And so, because the polls are the easiest things on the planet to argue and complain about, the usual voices were loud and proud about how they think a disservice had been done.

BYU’s loss to unranked UCF explains why Notre Dame football jumped Cougars in AP poll

It started with guys like On3's J.D. Pinkell, who even said that he believed Notre Dame would make the playoffs and BYU might not. But he still had an issue with the Irish being ranked ahead of the Cougars.

"I think Notre Dame is going to make the playoff. I think BYU isn't. But you can't rank the winner of that game 3 spots behind the loser when they both have a loss."

Twitter analyst complained about the rankings by using a bit of sarcasm.

But again, did BYU earn a Top 5 spot by losing in double overtime and allowing 39 points? Why is that a point that keeps getting ignored just to pile on Notre Dame?

Some commenters went to the old, reliable "it's a vast conspiracy." As if beating the country's No. 1 team wouldn't naturally get people talking about you as one of the best.

Stewart Mandel pointed out that Notre Dame passed BYU in just one week. Maybe because BYU lost to an unranked team.

While it's clearly fun to complain about the AP Top 25 on Sunday, the reality is that you can't inject much logic into these polls. The circular arguments that could erupt would make any brain melt.

The bigger point is that the AP poll is fun to debate but won't mean much this year. Notre Dame plays Miami in two weeks. If the Irish win that game, they'll likely drop below BYU. The other issue is that the College Football Playoff poll isn't determined by where the AP ranks a team.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow