Earlier in the day it was the USA Today trying to make sense of what this upcoming college football season’s first set of rankings will look like, and now it is ESPN’s turn as they have released their preseason FPI. Like the USA Today, ESPN has ranked Notre Dame as the #9 team in the country.
When comparing the two rankings released today, there are two teams on the Irish’s schedule with differences between the two, Wisconsin and USC. USA Today was not very high on the Badgers, ranking them #18th while ESPN is very high on Paul Chryst’s team putting them at #6 overall. The Badgers will face the Irish in historic Lambeau Field on October 3rd at 6:30pm CST.
The Trojans are looked at much higher by the ESPN experts also, ranking them 13th compared to 17th by the USA Today. Although the jump is not as large, it is still significant enough to notice and will help the Irish out if they are able to win and impress the College Football Playoff committee in their final regular season game.
The Dabo Swinney led Tigers are once again the top dog in ESPN’s FPI, projecting their offense 4th overall and their defense as the best in the nation. The game against Trevor Lawrence and the Tiger will be one of the most anticipated games of the whole college football season when they come to South Bend.
It does seem like the consensus has Brian Kelly’s 2020 squad as a Top 10 team, and at the moment three games against Top 25 competition. The Irish will have their hands full with Wisconsin, Clemson and USC but should have a punchers chance in each of those contests.