The College Football Playoff committee was unimpressed with Notre Dame’s 19-16 victory over Boston College. Of the teams that won last Saturday, the Irish were the big loser this week in the polls, sliding from No. 4 to No. 6 this week, even with Ohio State dropping a game.
Notre Dame was jumped by Oklahoma, Iowa and Michigan State in this week’s poll, the new No. 3, 4 and 5 teams. The 10-1 Sooners held on to win 30-29 over TCU while Iowa pulled away from Purdue in the second half to stay undefeated. Michigan State was the big winner of the week, ending Ohio State’s undefeated run in Columbus winning 17-14, with just a game against Penn State left before solidifying their spot in the Big Ten Championship game against the Hawkeyes.
Clemson and Alabama remain in the top two spots, while the Irish are trailed by Baylor, Ohio State, Stanford and Michigan in the Top Ten. Notre Dame’s lone loss is to No. 1 Clemson and they have victories over No. 15 Navy and No. 25 Temple. But the committee looked at the rather unimpressive play of the Irish these past two weeks while also weighing the ranked victories for Oklahoma and Michigan State.
“The Boston College game didn’t add a lot to their resume, but it was more about the performance of Oklahoma and Michigan State that propelled them ahead of Notre Dame,” committee chairman Jeff Long told ESPN. “I think that combination of them not playing well the last couple weeks, combined with those high ranked wins by Michigan State and Oklahoma propelled them up there.”
If you listened closely to Long, it’s far from a done deal, especially among the four teams bouncing between No. 3 and No. 6. Long told ESPN’s Rece Davis that multiple “revotes” were called, with quite a bit of discussion before ending the week on the current rank.
With Stanford at No. 9 and Oklahoma State at No. 11, both the Irish and Sooners will have high-profile opponents before ending their season without a conference championship game. Alabama will play in the Iron Bowl this weekend against Auburn before facing Florida in the SEC title game while Clemson will face North Carolina in the ACC title game.
Earlier on Tuesday, Brian Kelly sounded like a coach who knew his team’s fate wasn’t in its control. But Kelly also said he thought his team was worthy of a playoff spot if they beat Stanford, something that now carries some urgency with the Irish showing a perceived slip these past two weeks.
“All we can do is control the way we perform and the way we prepare,” Kelly said. “Our guys clearly understand what they have to do in their preparation and then their performance on Saturday. And that’s it. The rest is up to a committee, and we knew that coming into the season. So we’ll take care of what we can take care of.