Heather Dinich believes the College Football Playoff Rankings will put Notre Dame behind Texas A&M, and where the Coaches Poll will put them, because of the Fighting Irish’s 16-14 loss to NIU. The Aggies’ lone loss is to Notre Dame.
“I think this is going to be a much more significant and deep discussion in that committee meeting room than it has been outside of it, for the two reasons you just pointed out: Great win against Texas A&M, worst loss in the country, at home to NIU that now has four losses,” Dinich said on October 29 (h/t On3). “And I promise you, there will be committee members in that room who point that out and have a hard time getting over it.
“But [Booger McFarland’s] right, they’ve played well. The offense looked great against Navy. I was there. This is a better team now than it was then. But I would expect Notre Dame’s place in the committee’s first ranking to look different than it does in the AP Poll. I’m thinking around 11, 12, 13 and I think they are behind Texas A&M because of the Aggies win against LSU.”
Notre Dame can’t build strength of schedule Texas A&M can
The Fighting Irish have far from an SEC schedule to contend with. While Texas A&M is beating the likes of LSU, Missouri, Florida, and Arkansas, Notre Dame is out here beating Army, Navy, and USC.
Crazily enough, the Trojans are the weak link of that group. But the academies aren’t supposed to be your toughest game. Throw in Florida State being an also-ran, and you have a weak Fighting Irish slate.
Texas A&M has Texas on the schedule at home to end the season. That alone would be a win that’d propel the Aggies above Notre Dame. But unlike the Fighting Irish, Texas A&M will have a chance to win their conference championship to bolster their resume too.
Notre Dame beat TAMU in Week 1, but it might not matter if the teams have similar records when the College Football Playoff committee is making cuts for their 12-team field.