Those claiming Notre Dame football is 'always overrated' proven wrong again

Now that the AP Preseason Poll is officially out, we’ve heard all the old refrains. “How is Notre Dame football ranked so high?” and “The Fighting Irish are ridiculously overrated … again.” And “they’re always overrated.”

Long before Marcus Freeman came to South Bend, the program he helms has been considered one of the enduring villains of college football. And while that would hint that they’re not overrated at all, people tend claim one of the reasons the program is hated is because the media is always biased towards them.

It turns out, however, that the Notre Dame football program is one of the least overrated programs in the country. At least when it comes to the last decade or so.

Notre Dame football proves the doubters wrong again

Twitter user CFB Kings pointed out not long after AP rankings were released that the people who think Notre Dame are in fact, very wrong.

“Notre Dame’s recent preseason and postseason AP poll rankings.

• 2023: Started #13, finished #14

• 2022: Started #5, finished #18

• 2021: Started #9, finished #8

• 2020: Started #10, finished #5

• 2019: Started #9, finished #12

• 2018: Started #12, finished #5

• 2017: Started unranked, finished #11

Outside of 2022, Notre Dame has been one of the most accurately-ranked teams, if not even underrated, in AP preseason polls.”

As the account pointed out, there are some seasons where the voters get it wrong. There was even one season where the voters got it very wrong. But Notre Dame football tends to be accurately depicted by the voters, especially very recently.