Thanks to their win over USC, Notre Dame is in line to host a College Football Playoff game after the penultimate rankings were released.
The Fighting Irish, who sit at 11-1 on the season after reeling off 10 straight wins to finish the year, earned the No. 4 spot in this week’s ranking, moving up one spot after Ohio State’s loss to Michigan in Columbus.
The Irish will not be playing on conference championship Saturday, meaning that they are in prime position to not just get into the playoff, but will likely host a game in the first round.
The question remains what seed the Irish will ultimately get. As things stand, they would be the No. 6 seed in the playoff, with Penn State currently sitting above them both in the ranking itself and in the seeding.
Under CFP rules, the top-four seeds in the playoff will go to the highest-ranked conference champions, and since Notre Dame is not in a conference, the highest seed they can get is the No. 5 seed, which would mean they’d host a playoff game on either Dec. 20 or 21 in South Bend.
In the current rankings, the No. 6 seed would earn Notre Dame a home game against the Alabama Crimson Tide, who jumped Miami as the last at-large team to earn a spot in the playoff rankings after their win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl.
The other current matchups in the first round would include Penn State facing Arizona State, the top-ranked team in the Big 12. Georgia would host Indiana, and the Buckeyes would welcome the Tennessee Volunteers to Columbus.
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Oregon, Texas, SMU and Boise State would currently occupy the four top spots in the seeding as the top-four ranked conference leaders.
Of course, plenty can change this weekend for all the teams involved. Oregon will be taking on Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis, with both teams expected to receive bids to the CFP. Texas will take on Georgia in the SEC title game in Atlanta, while SMU will battle Clemson in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte.
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Boise State will try for the Mountain West title when they welcome UNLV to Idaho on Friday night.
Finally, Arizona State will try to go from a three-win team in 2023 to a conference champion in their first season in the Big 12 when they take on Iowa State in Arlington on Saturday morning.
The highest-ranked playoff team not participating in a conference title game is Notre Dame, followed by No. 9 Indiana, No. 11 Alabama and No. 12 Miami, whose loss to Syracuse likely doomed their playoff chances.
Here is the full top-25:
1 Oregon
2 Texas
3 Penn State
4 Notre Dame
5 Georgia
6 Ohio State
7 Tennessee
8 SMU
9 Indiana
10 Boise State
11 Alabama
12 Miami
13 Ole Miss
14 South Carolina
15 Arizona State
16 Iowa State
17 Clemson
18 BYU
19 Missouri
20 UNLV
21 Illinois
22 Syracuse
23 Colorado
24 Army
25 Memphis
The final College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Sunday, with the 12-team field set after conference title games are contested.
