Notre Dame football fans take issue with reporter who left Irish off Top 25

If you were wondering why the Notre Dame football team didn’t move up more in this week’s AP Top 25, then it’s possible at least part of the problem was people ranking them oddly low, despite being 6-1. Or, in the case of one reporter, not ranking them at all.

Every week it seems like there are at least a few ballots that are surprisingly off. Perhaps a team’s beat reporter likes them a little too much. Despite them not being as good as the reporter would like. Or maybe a reporter accidentally skips a team.

For Notre Dame football, Kate Rogerson did this. And to her credit, she did own up to it. And she explained how she managed to not rank the Fighting Irish at all. Still, that kind of mistake is going to be an issue with fans of the team.

Notre Dame football gets left off of rankings

“Did you forget to include Notre Dame on your AP ballot or do you not believe they are one of the 25 best teams,” a Twitter user known as ND Football Discord asked Roberson on the social media site. 

The reporter didn’t try and obfuscate or change the subject. She also didn’t get get haughty as some other reporters have done this year when they were challenged about odd Top 25 picks involving the Irish.

“Total mistake by me! I inserted my ballot incorrectly, but ND should have been ranked #13 on my poll,” Rogerson responded. “Sorry Irish fans! I’ll be better.”

While some Notre Dame football fans might get a bit angry about this kind of mistake, Rogerson made it clear that she was going to be more careful in the future. Alls well that ends well. One would hope this kind of thing doesn’t actually hurt the Iirsh in the long run and in the future.