While it's not the College Football Playoff Poll, the latest AP Top 25, released Sunday, shows Notre Dame's path to the CFP is still very much open. The explanation for why the Irish lost to the first-ranked team they played this year yet slid only a few spots is pretty easy to understand.
Notre Dame was No. 2 in the country when they kicked off against BYU on Saturday night. After the smoke cleared from their 28-24 loss to the Cougars and the AP Poll was released, the Irish fell two spots to No. 4. In other words, Marcus Freeman and Co. still have a chance to get a first-round bye if the CFP Poll ranks the team as highly.
So why did a Notre Dame team that routinely takes heat for a weaker schedule (whether it actually has one or not) fall to No. 4 in the latest AP Poll? The Irish can thank the lack of truly dominant, truly great teams in the sport this season.
On the same day No. 2 Notre Dame lost to No. 8 BYU, No. 1 Georgia, No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Alabama, and No. 7 Texas all went down as well. No. 11 Utah and No. 12 UCLA both came very, very close to getting knocked off by unranked teams. No. 3 Miami had to win in double overtime to hold off unranked Florida State.
Notre Dame football holds No. 4 AP ranking as multiple Top-10 losses preserve CFP path
Notre Dame might not be as good as we all thought. There are some serious questions about how Chris Ash called the game against BYU. Serious questions remain about CJ Carr and his ability to step up when the team needs him most. And there's a question about the wide receiver corps despite all the attention the coaches gave the position group. However, the Irish are still a very talented team and it's still very hard to see them not being better than most of the teams in college football.
Before the Irish started their game on Saturday night, there was quite a bit of talk that when they face off against Miami on November 7, it could be a batle of 1 versus 2. If things stay where they are, when the two teams bang heads, it will be 2 versus 4.
With a bye week this coming Saturday, Notre Dame has some things to sort out. The good news from the AP Top 25 is that their CFP dreams are very much alive. Now they need to figure out how to play better against ranked teams and keep moving down that path.
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