Notre Dame #25 in BCS Poll

After a dominant performance against Air Force, Notre Dame put itself in position to make a run at the BCS and landed at #25 in the second poll. From what I understand, if the Fighting Irish are ranked #8 in the final BCS poll, they get an automatic invite. But they can still get an at large invite if they are #12. But being honest, if Notre Dame is eligible somebody will take them. They are Notre Dame after all. So that means that the Fighting Irish need to move up 13 spots.

While that may seem difficult they do have about six weeks to do it. Provided they take care of business the next two weeks, they will keep moving up due to many of the teams ahead of them playing each other. For sure either Michigan or Michigan State will lose as they play each other this week and that will put the Fighting Irish ahead of the loser. They will both likely lose out to Ohio State eventually which will move Notre Dame up even further.

I am not sure why Wisconsin is one spot ahead of Notre Dame considering they lost to Arizona State. But they don't have a schedule left that will give them a statement win. They do play BYU, another common opponent, in a couple weeks.

Central Florida has been tough with wins over Penn State and Louisville. Their only loss was by 3 points to an SEC team in South Carolina. But they still have tough games with Houston, Rutgers, and SMU left. It is likely they slip up somewhere.

Louisville also has tough games left with Houston and Cincinnati. They can fall in either if not both.

UCLA has been tough but with two losses they will definitely fall with another loss. They have a showdown with Arizona State and even if they are successful, they probably go down to Oregon again.

The SEC (Schedule Easy Competition) always finds a way to have many teams in the top half of the poll. This year is no exception with South Carolina, LSU, Texas A & M, Auburn, and Missouri all ahead of Notre Dame. I left Alabama out because we don't need to catch them and won't. But of those teams, only Auburn and Missouri have just one loss. LSU will likely lose another to Alabama in a couple weeks. Auburn will play them at the end of the year while Texas A&M and Missouri play each other meaning one has to lose. South Carolina still has tough games with Florida and Clemson.

Based on all this, Notre Dame should get a BCS bid if they win out because many teams in front of them will fall due to playing each other. It is inevitable. So the best thing Notre Dame can do is just keep getting better like it has in recent weeks.

Go Irish!