It’s a good thing Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings show was only the fourth day of my free five-day trial of an inferior streaming service that I signed up for Saturday morning to watch games.

I really hope this stalemate is resolved by this Saturday, or I might just listen to LSU-Alabama on the radio.

Advertisement

Shouldn’t Notre Dame be worried about making the CFP? If USC loses badly to Oregon, does Notre Dame have a Top 25 win by the end of the season? — Leo

I said from the moment they started 0-2 that the Irish would have nothing to worry about if they turned around and won 10 straight games. I stand by that now. In fact, as of Tuesday night, they’re already “in” at No. 10, the highest two-loss team in the rankings.

Notre Dame was one of three teams, along with No. 9 Oregon (No. 6 in AP) and No. 13 Utah (No. 17 in AP), that showed me the committee is paying closer attention to schedule-strength metrics this year. Committee chairman Mack Rhoades specifically mentioned the Ducks’ strength of record as being the lowest of their top-10 teams. Unfortunately, the CFP does not publish its metrics, but The Athletic’s Austin Mock has Oregon at No. 21 in his SOR, which measures how likely it would be for a generic top-12 team to have the same record against that team’s schedule.

Meanwhile, I was not surprised to see 7-2 Utah higher than in the AP poll because efficiency ratings love the Utes. They are No. 4 in FEI, No. 6 in SP+ and No. 7 in FPI because they have outscored their opponents 356-128 and lost a close game to a top-10 team in BYU.

As for the Irish, they are No. 5 in FPI, and No. 7 in SP+ and FEI. From a resume standpoint, I’m not sure there’s a compelling reason why ND, with one Top-25 win (No. 19 USC), is above 7-2 Texas (No. 12 Oklahoma and No. 16 Vanderbilt) and the 6-2 Sooners (No. 21 Michigan and No. 25 Tennessee), with two ranked wins each. But even if you drop the Irish two spots, they’re still in great shape.

I suppose the committee could reevaluate the Irish if USC implodes down the stretch, but in 11 years following this stuff, I haven’t seen them drop a team precipitously without a loss. And they do face another current Top 25 team, Pittsburgh, on Nov. 15.

Advertisement

You keep assuming 10-2 in the SEC or Big Ten will get you into the Playoff. Why?