The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have been fighting for their lives this season since losing their first two games to Miami and Texas A&M. The good news is that both of those teams were ranked pretty high when they faced off and have continued to stay in the rankings. The bad news is that the head-to-head outcome matters, and it could come back to haunt Notre Dame.
In the second installment of the College Football Playoff rankings, Notre Dame came in at No. 9, and in the third rankings, the Fighting Irish didn't move an inch, even after beating a ranked Pitt team 37-15 in their own stadium. Notre Dame is still ranked No. 9 with analysts saying that the Fighting Irish could be at their ceiling and may not go much higher.
Notre Dame truly can not afford to lose another game, as Texas just lost its third game, and they completely fell out of the field and have a very small chance of getting back in.
Notre Dame must continue to treat every game as a playoff game
As mentioned before, Notre Dame has been in complete survival mode since Week 3 of the season, when they dropped their second game in a row, this time to Texas A&M. Luckily, Notre Dame's losses have both fared well enough this season to still have favorable rankings.
Texas A&M is ranked No. 3, a spot they haven't moved from since the selection committee released its rankings, and Miami is now No.13, its highest ranking from the committee. That means that those still count as quality losses.
Plus, it helps that USC moved up a bit this week to No. 15, and Notre Dame beat the Trojans by a solid margin. The Fighting Irish also laid it on thick against Pitt, who was ranked No. 22 last week by the CFP. Apparently, that doesn't matter much to the committee, as Notre Dame didn't budge.
At this point, Notre Dame just has to continue to keep its head down and focus on one game at a time until it is stim ot totally show up in the College Football Playoff.