Notre Dame Opens 2026 at No. 4 After a Playoff Snub
10 straight wins and the committee still left us home!
Notre Dame lost its first 2 games last season, by 3 points to Miami and then to Texas A&M. The Irish then won 10 in a row, beat Mountain West champion Boise State, beat No. 16 USC, and finished 10-2.
Final rankings had us at No. 11, which meant we were the first team out. Miami took the last at-large spot at No. 10, on the strength of a 3-point win in week 1 that the committee had been ranking us ahead of for most of the season. How does that even make sense…? Anyway, I’m still trying to get over it. I will, someday. Maybe.
Our athletic director called it a farce and said the committee pulled the rug out from under the program. The team then withdrew its name from bowl consideration entirely.
I loved that, if the postseason isn’t going to be the postseason, don’t hand us a consolation trip somewhere warm and call it a season.
So here we are.
No. 4 in the preseason AP poll, the highest Notre Dame has opened in 2 decades. Marcus Freeman has what many people who watch this closely are calling the deepest roster the program has had in 30 years.
CJ Carr is back, and that matters more to me than the ranking does. He is the first returning starting quarterback we have had since 2020. He started all 12 games last year and threw a touchdown pass in every single one of them, and that offense finished 2nd in the entire country in scoring at 41.8 points a game. 96% of the offensive snaps from that team are back. Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse are back. Then add 2 Ohio State transfers in Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter.
We are only 9 days away from the season; the season opens on Sunday
September 6, 6:30 on NBC, against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
It is a Shamrock Series game, so the Irish are the home team in Green Bay, and it is the first time Notre Dame has ever played in that stadium. Lambeau, night kick, opening weekend. Any ND fan has plenty of reasons to be excited.
One quick thing from my day job, because I could not let it go by.
Freeman was asked this week about adding fifth-year players who got their eligibility back through the courts.
He said no, because admissions does not bend and the semester had already started. That is a real standard; somebody actually enforces it, and it cost him a player he could have used this fall.
When a company moves that slowly, there is usually no standard behind it. Nobody has the authority to say yes.
Notre Dame lost its first 2 games last season, by 3 points to Miami and then to Texas A&M. The Irish then won 10 in a row, beat Mountain West champion Boise State, beat No. 16 USC, and finished 10-2.
Final rankings had us at No. 11, which meant we were the first team out. Miami took the last at-large spot at No. 10, on the strength of a 3-point win in week 1 that the committee had been ranking us ahead of for most of the season. How does that even make sense…? Anyway, I’m still trying to get over it. I will, someday. Maybe.
Our athletic director called it a farce and said the committee pulled the rug out from under the program. The team then withdrew its name from bowl consideration entirely.
I loved that, if the postseason isn’t going to be the postseason, don’t hand us a consolation trip somewhere warm and call it a season.
So here we are.
No. 4 in the preseason AP poll, the highest Notre Dame has opened in 2 decades. Marcus Freeman has what many people who watch this closely are calling the deepest roster the program has had in 30 years.
CJ Carr is back, and that matters more to me than the ranking does. He is the first returning starting quarterback we have had since 2020. He started all 12 games last year and threw a touchdown pass in every single one of them, and that offense finished 2nd in the entire country in scoring at 41.8 points a game. 96% of the offensive snaps from that team are back. Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse are back. Then add 2 Ohio State transfers in Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter.
We are only 9 days away from the season; the season opens on Sunday
September 6, 6:30 on NBC, against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
It is a Shamrock Series game, so the Irish are the home team in Green Bay, and it is the first time Notre Dame has ever played in that stadium. Lambeau, night kick, opening weekend. Any ND fan has plenty of reasons to be excited.
One quick thing from my day job, because I could not let it go by.
Freeman was asked this week about adding fifth-year players who got their eligibility back through the courts.
He said no, because admissions does not bend and the semester had already started. That is a real standard; somebody actually enforces it, and it cost him a player he could have used this fall.
When a company moves that slowly, there is usually no standard behind it. Nobody has the authority to say yes.
Alright, that is enough business for a Friday.
Sources: ESPN and CBS Sports on the 2025 playoff decision and the bowl withdrawal · NBC Sports, CJ Carr and the No. 4 preseason ranking · Notre Dame Athletics, 2026 Shamrock Series at Lambeau Field
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