Notre Dame football in the polls: Irish crack top 10 of Coaches, AP Poll
The most important rankings release of the year to date come out Tuesday. That's when the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2021 season are released.
As always, though, the Coaches Poll and Associated Press Poll have acted as placeholders all season. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-1) have been ranked in at least the top 15 of each of those polls all season. Sunday, the Irish reentered the top 10 of both of them.
Notre Dame beat North Carolina 44-34 on Saturday night. Sunday, the Fighting Irish came in at No. 8 in the Coaches Poll (up three spots from last week) and No. 8 in the AP poll (also up three spots from last week).
Notre Dame has a third home game in a row against an unranked opponent this week against Navy (2-6). Then it's back to the road to face a Virginia (6-3) team whose defense was exploited in a 66-49 loss to BYU on Saturday night.
The Irish's last home game of the season is against Georgia Tech (3-5) on Nov. 20. Notre Dame finishes the regular season at Stanford (3-5) on Nov. 27.
Notre Dame has a serious shot at finishing the regular season 11-1. In a lot of seasons, that'd be good enough to reach the College Football Playoff. Maybe not this year, though. The Irish have not beaten a team currently ranked in the polls. Wisconsin was ranked when Notre Dame beat the Badgers on Sept. 25 but has not been ranked since that week.
The Irish missed a huge opportunity when they lost at home to now-No. 2 Cincinnati (8-0) on Oct. 2. The Bearcats seemed poised to reach the CFP if they win out. That would have been the case for Notre Dame if the Irish held serve at home a month ago.
Week 10 AP Top 25
1. Georgia (8-0) (63)
2. Cincinnati (8-0)
3. Alabama (7-1)
4. Oklahoma (9-0)
5. Michigan State (5-0)
6. Ohio State (7-1)
7. Oregon (7-1)
8. Notre Dame (7-1)
9. Michigan (7-1)
10. Wake Forest (8-0)
11. Oklahoma State (7-1)
12. Auburn (6-2)
13. Texas A&M (6-2)
14. Baylor (7-1)
15. Ole Miss (6-2)
16. UTSA (8-0)
17. BYU (7-2)
18. Kentucky (6-2)
19. Iowa (6-2)
20. Houston (7-1)
21. Coastal Carolina (7-1)
22. Penn State (5-3)
23. SMU (7-1)
24. Louisiana (7-1)
25. Fresno State (7-2)
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