Notre Dame is just 2-2 despite dominating at North Carolina last weekend and are fresh off a bye as they prepare to take on BYU in Las Vegas this coming weekend. With eight games to go the Irish have plenty to play for even if the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six are off the table.
Is Notre Dame certain to go bowling at all this year? How likely are the Irish to win eight or more games? Both seem a lot more likely following the 45-32 victory in Chapel Hill and obviously didn’t take a hit during the bye week.
I’m in a love-hate relationship with ESPN’s FPI. I say it almost weekly but it’s true. It takes emotion out of the rankings and uses mathematical formulas to rank all Football Bowl Subdivision teams 1-131 weekly. However, it seems lacking when it comes to teams regularly find ways to lose or sneak out wins, something that is hard to quantify but is impossible to convince me isn’t real (see Auburn).