Usually, you have to lose to fall in the AP Top 25. But sometimes you can slide while you’re on a bye, as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish experienced this week.
The good news is that slide is only two spots, from No. 8 to No. 10. And yes, this is how it works sometimes — a team can benefit or suffer from the results of other games, including upsets, while on a week off.
It still must be a bit frustrating for an Irish squad that has playoff aspirations, but sometimes you get caught as collateral damage in the fallout from upsets.
A minor upset loss at home to Ohio State sent Penn State falling three spots, but Indiana handling Michigan State also affected Notre Dame. The Hoosiers jumped five spots.
Pittsburgh falling to SMU has really shaken up the poll as the Mustangs jumped seven spots to No. 13 and Pitt fell five spots to No. 23. Other big movers included Iowa State falling six spots to No. 17 after losing to Texas Tech and Texas A&M falling five spots to No. 15 after a bad second half against South Carolina.
Kansas State slid five spots to No. 22 after losing to Houston and Clemson’s loss to Louisville at home caused the Tigers to drop eight spots to No. 19.
Oregon retains the top spot, and the rest of the top five is Georgia, Ohio State, Miami (Florida) and Texas. Those first two teams didn’t move from last week, while the other three are all up one.
Penn State is now No. 6, with Tennessee, Indiana, BYU and Notre Dame rounding out the top 10.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (Formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Tim on X: @tehealey