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Where does Notre Dame football rank in the Week 16 AP Poll?

Kyle Kellyby: Kyle Kelly14 hours agoByKyleKelly

Notre Dame football remains a top-12 team nationally, according to Associated Press poll voters. On Sunday morning, the Irish landed at No. 9 in the Week 16 AP Top 25.

But that’s just the media’s view.

At noon ET Sunday, 12 College Football Playoff committee members will deliver Notre Dame’s official fate. The final CFP rankings will be revealed, and the Irish will learn whether they’ll have a chance to return to the tournament. In last Tuesday’s rankings, the Irish fell to No. 10, sparking controversy.

Before last Tuesday’s CFP rankings, Notre Dame’s CFP position had mirrored its AP Poll ranking for the previous four weeks. But unlike the AP Poll, the CFP committee moved Alabama ahead of Notre Dame after a 27-20 win over 5-7 Auburn. Meanwhile, the Irish beat 4-8 Stanford 49-20.

Last Tuesday marked the first time in two weeks that Alabama jumped Notre Dame, creating confusion for key figures on campus, including coach Marcus Freeman and athletics director Pete Bevacqua.

“Obviously, you’re disappointed, but more so because of a little bit of confusion,” Freeman told reporters last Wednesday. “You’re confused in terms of what we could have done differently and why we fell when we won 49-20. I think we were up 42-6 going into the fourth quarter. …

“I don’t spend time talking about other teams, but it’s just like, ‘OK, what could we have done differently?’ I don’t know, right? You always look for cause and effect, you look for a reasoning why you go up, or you fall. And for me, it was just you didn’t see a great explanation for why we fell when we had the performance we did last Saturday.”

Bevacqua also disagreed with Notre Dame’s dip in last Tuesday’s CFP rankings.

“We think we should still be ninth, quite frankly,” he said Friday on the Pat McAfee Show. “We’ve made that known to the committee.”

To keep their CFP hopes alive, the Irish needed BYU to lose in the Big 12 championship game. The Cougars checked that box by falling 34-7 to Texas Tech.

Then Notre Dame needed more help with an Alabama loss in the SEC championship game. That happened, too. The Tide lost 28-7 to Georgia and finished with minus-3 rushing yards.

So most reporters believe the Irish will get in. Now it’s a matter of finding out what the CFP committee thinks. That will happen at noon ET on ESPN.

Week 16 AP Poll

  1. Indiana (13-0)
  2. Georgia (12-1)
  3. Ohio State (12-1)
  4. Texas Tech (12-1)
  5. Oregon (11-1)
  6. Ole Miss (11-1)
  7. Texas A&M (11-1)
  8. Oklahoma (10-2)
  9. Notre Dame (10-2)
  10. Miami (10-2)
  11. Alabama (10-3)
  12. BYU (11-2)
  13. Vanderbilt (10-2)
  14. Texas (9-3)
  15. Utah (10-2)
  16. USC (9-3)
  17. Tulane (11-2)
  18. Michigan (9-3)
  19. James Madison (12-1)
  20. Virginia (10-3)
  21. Arizona (9-3)
  22. Navy (9-2)
  23. North Texas (11-2)
  24. Georgia Tech (9-3)
  25. Missouri (8-4)