Where Notre Dame opponents appear in Week 10 College Football Playoff rankings
Take one look at the Week 10 College Football Playoff rankings. If you’re a Notre Dame football fan, your first thought is probably, ‘Holy moly, what a schedule the Irish have this year.’
Holy moly indeed.
Five Notre Dame opponents appear in the first CFP rankings of the 2022 season; No. 2 Ohio State (8-0), No. 4 Clemson (8-0), No. 9 USC (7-1), No. 17 North Carolina (7-1) and No. 20 Syracuse (6-2).
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Notre Dame lost to Ohio State, 21-10, in the season opener. Ohio Stadium was a raucous sellout. The Irish host Clemson this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET under the lights in South Bend. They finish the regular season on the road at USC on Nov. 26. Notre Dame beat North Carolina, 45-32, in Chapel Hill on Sept. 24 and just beat Syracuse, 41-24, on the road this past Saturday.
Marcus Freeman hasn’t exactly eased into the job during his first year at the helm of the program. Such is life at times as the head coach at a place like this.
The win over North Carolina was not a ranked win at the time. The Tar Heels were not in the polls after a 3-0 start. But they haven’t lost since, and it might as well count as a ranked victory for Freeman and company with the way the Heels have looked since suffering that home loss. The Irish took it to them, too, leading the game by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter.
That win has essentially replaced the Irish’s triumph over then-No. 16 BYU in the Shamrock Series in Las Vegas on Oct. 8 on the importance of victory meter. The Cougars (4-5) have not won a game since Sept. 29, taking an opposite trajectory to their season as UNC has.
Oddly enough, the Irish’s narrative this season under Freeman has taken a 180 of its own from what the story was with former ND head coach Brian Kelly for so many years. Kelly couldn’t ever win the “big game” but seemingly always beat the lesser opponents. The Irish have home losses to Marshall (4-4) and Stanford (3-5) in 2022, meanwhile, but played the No. 2 team in the country closely and beat two other top-20 teams — all on the road.
It shouldn’t be ruled out that Notre Dame has a chance to throw a wrench into Clemson’s CFP plans with an upset in primetime. A win would almost assuredly vault the Irish into all the polls, including next week’s CFP rankings. The Irish just have to figure out how to show up and show out at home.
Week 10 CFP rankings
1. Tennessee (8-0)
2. Ohio State (8-0)
3. Georgia (8-0)
4. Clemson (8-0)
5. Michigan (8-0)
6. Alabama (7-1)
7. TCU (8-0)
8. Oregon (7-1)
9. USC (7-1)
10. LSU (6-2)
11. Ole Miss (8-1)
12. UCLA (7-1)
13. Kansas State (6-2)
14. Utah (6-2)
15. Penn State (6-2)
16. Illinois (7-1)
17. North Carolina (7-1)
18. Oklahoma State (6-2)
19. Tulane (7-1)
20. Syracuse (6-2)
21. Wake Forest (6-2)
22. NC State (6-2)
23. Oregon State (6-2)
24. Texas (5-3)
25. UCF (6-2)
