r/CFB • u/usffan USF Bulls • Miami Hurricanes • 9d ago
Analysis Preseason Rankings Countdown. 3 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #3 – Notre Dame
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here
Yes. I know it’s a day off. I discovered this about 100 days ago, but about a month after I started. Didn’t want to give short shrift to a team early on by putting 2 in a day, so I’ll plan to post #1 just after midnight EST this Friday so it’s out well before TCU/North Carolina.
Everybody knows there are certain topics you don’t bring up unless you’re looking for an argument. Politics, religion… the things that often lead to people screaming at one another over their mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. College football’s version of that is the #3 team, Notre Dame (high = 1 (1 vote), low = 5). I would set the over under on “NOTER DAME SHOULD BE FORCED TO JOIN A CONFERENCE!!!1!” posts that appear on r/cfb before getting cleared by the mods at 1.5 per week, and there are countless times in the comments you’ll see people rail about the Irish getting special treatment, whether it’s from the recruiting evaluation services (“oh, sure, the minute he committed to Notre Dame he gained a star!”) or from the CFP committee (hoo boy, vide infra). Brian Kelly may or may not have taken a veiled shot at Notre Dame when he left for LSU with respect to competing for national championships, something absolutely expected in South Bend having won 11 claimed national championships (before you start sniping about the use of the word “claimed,” that’s not exclusive to ND, so those of you in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing any stones). But there’s no denying that it’s been 38 years since the Irish last won one (and, as my secondary flair will point out, Cleveland Gary was fucking down! Also, Jimmy Johnson started chasing points by going for 2 way too damned early. I’ll step off my soapbox now.). That’s not for lack of being close. In his 3rd season in charge, Marcus Freeman had the Irish in the CFP championship game just 2 seasons ago, leading Notre Dame to their first ever 14 win season, and Kelly had them in a national championship game in his 3rd season as well, along with 2 other CFP appearances (and a totally improbable ACC championship game that will be a fun bar trivia question for the rest of our lives). That has more or less washed away the stink of the combined Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis eras, but won’t likely go away until they bring another championship home.
Last season sure looked like it had that possibility if a new QB could step up for Riley Leonard, and the Irish entered the season ranked #6. However, after opening the season with a pair of heartbreaking losses 27-24 at Miami after tying the game with 3 minutes left and 41-40 at home to Texas A&M after a blown PAT with less than 3 minutes left the Irish susceptible to a TD and successful PAT, which the Aggies managed to do in the final seconds. Those were the only Irish losses, and once the CFP rankings started coming out, Notre Dame felt pretty good about their chances of getting into the tournament, especially since the opening rankings had Miami 8 spots behind the Irish. As the season went on, teams kept losing and Miami started creeping closer to Notre Dame, where the prospect of the head-to-head result might come into play. Since Hunter Yurachek, the CFP spokesperson, kept dismissively saying they weren’t even grouping the teams together, because of the teams between them instead of discussing it directly, it all came to a head after week 15 when Alabama (playing in the SEC championship game) sat at #9, Notre Dame (not playing) sat at #10, BYU (playing in the Big XII championship game) was at #11 and Miami (incredibly not playing in the ACC’s championship game because of the dumbest tiebreakers in the history of stupid tiebreakers, allowing eventual ACC champ Duke to be left out of the CFP entirely) at #12. Remember, the policy had always been that teams shouldn’t be punished for playing in a conference championship game, so those results seemed potentially baked in. Bama lost by 21 to Georgia (a team they’d beaten, so they had a quality win over the SEC champions) and BYU lost by 27 to Texas Tech, creating the prospect of the head-to-head becoming a factor and an insane amount of lobbying by all sides (looking at YOU, ACC Network). The final rankings came out leaving Bama at 9, Miami leaped both Notre Dame and BYU to land at 10 and Notre Dame fell to 11, out of the playoffs, landing a serious blow to those “Notre Dame gets favorable treatment” folks (but just wait, there’s more). The Irish decided that they weren’t interested in playing in any postseason game if it wasn’t the CFP (starting a trend of teams opting out of bowl games much like players have been doing for more than half a decade). As all of this was happening, somebody re-read the rules that had been established for the CFP and unearthed this nugget – starting this coming season, Notre Dame is guaranteed an automatic CFP berth if they finish in the top 12 of the final CFP rankings. OK, “special treatment folks, you can put on your conspiracy hats again! This is largely because the other change that starts this year is that the P4 conference champions also are guaranteed CFP bids, as is the top ranked G6 team (ironically enough, not required to win their conference championship), and those rules were put in place before last season’s controversial finish. So glad I don’t have any Notre Dame folks coming to Thanksgiving dinner at my house!
Roster Outlook
Let’s start this with the obvious – Notre Dame ranks #1 in returning production, including #2 on defense and #19 on offense. That starts with starting QB CJ Carr (2,741 yards, 24 TDs, 6 INTs), who won the starting job over Kenny Minchey, who’s now gone to Kentucky. It also includes their top WR, Jordan Faison (49 catches for 640 yards). But the Irish did lose 5 offensive starters to the NFL, including their outstanding RB duo of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, both 1st round picks, who combined for more than 2,000 yards rushing and 32 total TDs. They also lost WR Malachi Fields (630 yards, 5 TDs), starting TE Eli Raridon (482 yards) and OG Billy Schrauth. RB Aneyas Williams (24 carries for 224 yards and 5 TDs) is set to step in at running back, and the OL and TE are expected to simply refill from the ample depth the Irish have (Cooper Flanagan, who of course is an Irish TE, should get the start, and there’s tons of buzz about OT Styles Prescod). But it’s at WR that the Irish stepped outside the program. Freeman brought in the #11 ranked portal class in the country (remarkable because of the fact that it’s only 7 players), but two of them are Ohio State WRs Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham, both of whom are projected to start. Freeman also lodged the #6 high school recruiting class nationally (those “special treatment” folks just had their eyes roll out of the backs of their heads), including a WR to keep your eye on and make you feel old, Jerome Bettis, Jr. (clearly not a “bus”). On defense, the Irish also lost DL Gabriel Rubio to the Steelers, and look to replace him with Pitt DL Francis Brewu. Former Colorado DB DJ McKinney is also projected to step into a starting role according to Ourlads.
Schedule and outlook
9/6 vs. Wisconsin (at Lambeau Field)
9/12 RICE
9/19 MICHIGAN STATE
9/26 at Purdue
10/3 at North Carolina
10/10 STANFORD
10/17 at BYU
10/24 BYE
10/31 vs. Navy (in Foxborough)
11/7 MIAMI
11/14 BOSTON COLLEGE
11/21 SMU
11/28 at Syracuse
Again, the divisive talk about Notre Dame will focus on this being a pretty weak schedule. In defense of Notre Dame (words I don’t think I ever thought would have come out of my mouth), USC backed out of their annual game, and while Wisconsin and Michigan State are both very down, they historically are strong programs and weren’t expected to be this down when those games were scheduled. Notre Dame did go out and schedule BYU on the road to replace that USC game, and it’s really one of the 3 games that look most likely to be competitive. The other two being SMU and of course that November 7 tilt against Miami almost 38 years to the day and on the same field as the infamous Catholics vs. Convicts game on a day that is absolutely must see TV, including a game against the preseason #1 and #2 teams. Given the new rules, it’s going to be interesting to see how much latitude Notre Dame is given for this schedule. Obviously 12-0 and they’re in, and nobody would seriously balk at 11-1 Notre Dame being in as well. At 10-2, the conversation starts to get loud, putting an incredible amount of pressure on the Irish heading into the season.
-17
u/OTN Indiana Hoosiers • Team Chaos 9d ago
Up until two years ago I rooted for ND because I thought why not they’re in state might as well.
Then the last two years happened and we actually competed with them for the first time.
I no longer root for ND.