This past weekend may have not been the most pleasant viewing experience for Notre Dame football. To all of those Irish fans who made the trip to Chestnut Hill to watch that it must’ve been an experience. The good news from week 10 is that things started to shake in Notre Dame’s favor with a bunch of losses from ranked teams.
Here’s the latest poll from 18 Stripes:
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M | 8-0 | at Missouri |
| 2 | Indiana | 9-0 | at Penn State |
| 3 | Ohio State | 8-0 | at Purdue |
| 4 | Alabama | 7-1 | vs. LSU |
| 5 | Georgia | 7-1 | at Miss State |
| 6 | Oregon | 7-1 | at Iowa |
| 7 | BYU (+3) | 8-0 | at Texas Tech |
| 8 | Ole Miss (+3) | 8-1 | vs. The Citadel |
| 9 | Notre Dame (+3) | 6-2 | vs. Navy |
| 10 | Texas Tech (+3) | 8-1 | vs. BYU |
| 11 | Virginia (+3) | 8-1 | vs. Wake Forest |
| 12 | Louisville (+3) | 8-1 | vs. California |
| 13 | Texas (+4) | 7-2 | BYE |
| 14 | Oklahoma (+6) | 7-2 | BYE |
| 15 | Georgia Tech (-8) | 8-1 | BYE |
| 16 | Vanderbilt (-7) | 7-2 | vs. Auburn |
| 17 | Utah (NR) | 7-2 | BYE |
| 18 | Miami (-10) | 6-2 | vs. Syracuse |
| 19 | USC (NR) | 6-2 | vs. Northwestern |
| 20 | Washington (NR) | 6-2 | at Wisconsin |
Dropped Out:
#16 Tennessee
#18 Cincinnati
#19 Houston
It was a rough game for Tennessee who carried a ton of early momentum in Knoxville, comfortably outgained Oklahoma, but untimely turnovers sank the Vols playoff hopes in a 33-27 loss.
Cincinnati had been one of the hottest teams in the country heading into week 10. Had been…despite putting up yards they were blown out 45-14 at Utah to suffer their first Big 12 defeat.
Houston was in the mix among the Big 12 but a -4 turnover margin led to a tough home loss to West Virginia 45-35. That’s their 2nd loss in league play now.
Top Games Recap:
Texas Tech fell behind early after a scoreless 1st quarter then cruised to a 43-20 win over Kansas State in Manhattan.
Indiana moves to +321 in point differential after a 55-10 win at Maryland.
Georgia held off pesky Florida in their rivalry game 24-20.
No trip up for Ole Miss as they get past visiting South Carolina easily 30-14.
Undefeated no more. Georgia Tech went into Raleigh and found themselves on the wrong end of a dog fight, losing 48-36. With the loss, currently 5-0 Virginia (they beat Cal 31-21) sits atop the ACC standings. What a world.
Vanderbilt scored 21 points in the 4th quarter but couldn’t complete a comeback in Austin, falling 34-31 to Texas. That drops the Commodores down to 7th place in the SEC with their 2nd league loss.
The good vibes appear over for Miami as they lose 26-20 in overtime at SMU. All of the rankings have the 2-loss Hurricanes below 2-loss Notre Dame, whom they beat, which is interesting and we’ll see how the CFP committee treats this on Tuesday night during their debut show.
Louisville trailed at halftime then came back to beat Virginia Tech 28-16.
Interesting Games to Note:
Kennesaw State 33-20 UTEP: Just a quick note that 2nd-year FBS program Kennesaw State (2-10 last year) is undefeated in league plays and leads the Conference USA right now.
James Madison 52-20 Texas State: The Dukes are 5-0 in the Sun Belt and remain in the G5 playoff spot hunt.
UTSA 48-26 Tulane: A first conference loss for the Green Wave this past Thursday in San Antonio.
FSU 42-7 Wake Forest: First ACC win for the Noles!
Duke 46-45 Clemson: Dabo Swinney losing at home to Duke, ouch. The Tigers face FSU this weekend for a matchup with combined 3-8 records in the ACC.
Arizona 52-17 Colorado: Coach Prime leaving Boulder for health reasons and a terrible record looks likely this off-season.
Kentucky 10-3 Auburn: Now both of these teams are 1-5 in the SEC and Hugh Freeze is gone from the Plains.
Opponent Recap:
Miami (6-2): Losses in 2 out of their last 3 games officially have the Canes reeling.
Texas A&M (8-0): Coming off a bye, the Aggies look to keep their perfect record intact this weekend at Missouri.
Purdue (2-7): It would’ve been such a fun upset in Ann Arbor but the Boilers lost 21-16 to Michigan.
Arkansas (2-7): The Hogs took a 35-21 lead in the 4th quarter and ended up losing 38-35 to visiting Miss State. They are really going through it this year.
Boise State (6-3): Not much of a quality win for Notre Dame here as the Broncos get blown out at home 30-7 to Fresno State.
NC State (5-4): This weekend’s defeat of Georgia Tech had to be one of the best wins of the Dave Doeren era.
USC (6-2): Nebraska’s woes against good teams continue as they allow USC to come from behind and win 21-17 in Lincoln.
Boston College (1-8): The Eagles put up a good fight this weekend.
Navy (7-1): The Middies could’ve made this weekend an enormous game but then lost 31-17 at North Texas. It’s still a big game, though.
Pittsburgh (7-2): The Panthers cruised past Stanford on the Farm by the score of 35-20.
Syracuse (3-6): There’s bad and then there’s gaining only 147 total yards against North Carolina in a 27-10 loss, kind of bad.
Stanford (3-6): There doesn’t seem to be a path forward for Stanford to make a bowl game.
Virginia having a loss to NC State that doesn’t count in the conference standings continues to be hilarious
So CFP expands to 12 teams, NIL, college free agency, etc. It seems like every team that has won multiple national championships since the forward pass was introduced (other than ivy league) has thinking this way. LSU spent roughly 18 million in transfer portal and/or NIL to retain players headed into 2025. On paper, they were in the SEC championship game.
The great thing about college football is there are always unknown inputs. The NFL is pretty set in knowing the quality of the player and the team and there is the pro-mindset. College football has 18-24 year olds that are much more influenced by social media and peer group. What skill player isn’t going to be influenced by getting $500K to move to a power program, and being told by his family/friends and peers that he has made it. On paper LSU should have been a powerhouse. In reality, so many factors go into the college game, that simple spending doesn’t correct all issues. There are to many unknown’s.
If colleges have the mindset that Verge Ausberry presented, there are going to be a lot of colleges disappointed with their teams every year. 136 FBS teams, 12 playoff spots. 67 power four teams, 11 playoff spots. That is slightly more than a 15% chance of making the playoffs in any given year if you are power four. With parity from transfers, college doormats like Indiana and Vanderbilt rising up, and upsets like NC State taking down Georgia Tech, SMU beating Miami, UCLA over Penn St, Syracuse over Clemson, how can any college expect to be in the playoffs every year. Not every team can be a playoff team, someone has to lose, some team has to have a less than 500 record. Some coach / player / program isn’t going to meet the expectations they had at the beginning of the year.
Then putting all the winning teams in one conference through conference realignment, and all of them expecting to be one of the top two teams in conference is madness. Ohio St, Michigan, Oregon and USC. Someone has to be ranked below #2 in conference. Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas and Oklahoma, maybe they can agree on a five way tie for first?
Expectations are becoming unrealistic in college football.
Several years ago Eric asked what people thought about conferences getting bigger. i thought they’d collapse under their own weight, but couldn’t guess whether that would take 5 years or 20 (or something like that, it’s definitely not my comment verbatim). It’s been more than 5 years, but your last paragraph shows where the cracks may form to end the superconference era before it hits 20.
With your top 5 SEC teams I’d also argue expectations are almost as high at Tennessee, Auburn, and Florida. Again, madness to expect to be in the SECCG every year.
I think there’s little doubt now. Win out and you’re in.
I hope so, though there are scenarios where we could get passed up by teams just below us who have more and better quality wins in November, are there not?
I think they could drop back under certain scenarios (mostly unlikely) but I doubt out.
The committee does not necessarily demonstrate poll inertia like the AP does. We got a great first ranking, but they could drop us if someone (e.g., Texas) has a more impressive resume in a month from now.