Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from blowout loss to Michigan
1. Notre Dame and the conference debate
No. 8 was way too high for Notre Dame to be ranked. This was true even before the loss to Michigan. When the Irish inevitably win the rest of the games on their schedule, they will finish the regular season with a 10-2 record. With that, they will reemerge in the Top 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings. However, once again, this will be an inaccurate assessment of the Irish’s true quality as a team.
Because Notre Dame isn’t in a conference, there is very little for anyone to gauge how good they truly are. Simply, their name and the talent of their athletes carry all the weight, not how well they perform as a team. This leads to the Irish being consistently overrated; and therefore, extremely disappointing when they lose to good teams.
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This year, the only two quality teams the Irish will have played are Georgia and Michigan. Every other team is bad. Navy (6-1) is on the horizon and could give them some issues, but unlikely. Put Notre Dame in a conference and their year-to-year records get worse. They would turn into something like a Wisconsin or LSU, creating realistic expectations and more precise rankings of the Irish.