Notre Dame is chasing the rankings after week thirteen

Surging for a top 5 spot?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish took care of business in impressive fashion — again. The Irish moved to 10-1 on the season after a 49-14 win over Army in Yankee Stadium, and it was a game that highlighted just how much better Notre Dame is on the field than a service academy — again. While some may want to dismiss the victory as just another win over a team it should beat, Notre Dame blew the spread out of the water as it handled its business — again.

So that was good.

So how did the Irish opponents do this week?

#20 Texas A&M Aggies — LOST vs Auburn Tigers (8-3) —
Northern Illinois — LOST vs Miami Redhawks (6-5) —
Purdue Boilermakers — LOST vs Michigan State Spartans (1-10) —
Miami Redhawks — WON vs Northern Illinois (7-4) —
Louisville Cardinals — WON vs Pitt Panthers (7-4) —
Stanford Cardinal — LOST vs Cal Bears (3-8) —
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets — WON vs NC State Wolfpack (7-4) —
Navy Midshipmen — BYE (7-3) —
Florida State Seminoles — WON vs Charleston Southern (2-9) —
Virginia Cavaliers — LOST vs SMU Mustangs (5-6) —
#25 Army Black Knights — LOST vs Notre Dame (9-1) —
USC Trojans — WON vs UCLA Bruins (5-5) —

Notre Dame moved up one spot in both the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll this week, and I continue to be amazed at the false crowning of the Penn State Nittany Lions. I’m not amazed that college football fans are also up in arms about Notre Dame’s ranking while also totally forgetting they fought back from #18 with blowout win after blowout win to get to #5.

Obviously, the playoff rankings are what’s important here — but I will always remind people that the committee doesn’t give post playoff rankings. Those bulletpoints of “top 5” or “top 10” finishes come from the AP.