A good amount of way-too-early Top 25 projections for next season have been released now that the season is over. [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag], like many schools across the country, is losing some stars (tight end [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag] and defensive end [autotag]Isaiah Foskey[/autotag]) and gaining some (quarterback [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag]).
Spring practice hasn’t even started, while the majority of the freshman class aren’t even on campus yet. Most of these are just speculation, but they still give a good indication of what to expect for a team heading into next season.
The Irish, who according to 247Sports, have an average ranking of 13, and they believe it is too high. The main rationale for Brad Crawford’s thinking is due to the 2023 schedule and how potentially difficult it will be during the second full season for [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag].
Crawford highlighted two home games, [autotag]Ohio State[/autotag] and [autotag]USC[/autotag], and two road, [autotag]Clemson[/autotag] and [autotag]Duke[/autotag] (???) as potential losses for the Irish. He does try and rationalize the Duke inclusion, but we have seen this script before from similar schools.
Personally, I believe their ranking is a bit too low. The Irish should be about 3-4 spots higher, just inside the top 10. Time will tell where Notre Dame ultimately ends up, but it’s fun to guess right how where they might end up.
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