Should Northern Illinois be ranked ahead of Notre Dame in the polls?

Week 2 of the 2024 College Football season produced one of the greatest upsets in college football history when Northern Illinois took down No. 5 Notre Dame 16-14 in South Bend.

As a result, the Huskies found itself ranked 25th in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2013. Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish dropped to the 18th spot in the polls. Should the Huskies be ranked ahead of the Irish after Saturday's historic affair?

The Huskies arrived in South Bend as 28-point underdogs and were paid $1.4 million to go against the then No. 5 team in the country. Northern Illinois came off a dominant 54-15 victory over Western Illinois a week prior, but nobody thought the Huskies were going to beat a Notre Dame team that took down a ranked Texas A&M squad on the road.

Junior Huskies quarterback Ethan Hampton didn't have the prolific outing he did last week, but he led his offense on an 11-play, 31-yard drive that put the Huskies in field goal range to take a 16-14 lead late in the fourth quarter.

The Irish's offense then went on a 5-play, 19-yard drive to try to retake the lead, but the offense struggled to move the ball downfield and they were forced to kick a long 62-yard field goal, which was unsuccessful.

In speaking of struggling offenses, Irish transfer quarterback Riley Leonard has yet to play up to expectations as a top commodity coming from the transfer portal. Leonard, who played at Duke for three seasons, has tossed for 321 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions along with averaging only 5.2 yards per pass attempt across two games.

Leonard's struggles weren't as glorified after the win in College Station, but now after an embarrassing loss to the 28-point underdog Huskies, the microscope is firmly focused on the 6-foot-4 quarterback.

Furthermore, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman has once again suffered a devastating, yet mind-boggling loss while being hyped with National Championship aspirations. In 2022, the Irish lost to Marshall at home as 21-point favorites and Stanford as 16-point favorites.

In 2023, Freeman's team lost in a heartbreaking fashion against Ohio State on the last play of the game. Yes, there is no shame in losing to the Buckeyes, but the Irish only had 10 players on defense for the final two plays of the game, which rests on the shoulders of Freeman.

As Freeman's third season as Notre Dame's head coach continues, is Freeman capable of leading the program to national championship contention? Or perhaps maybe this coveted job is too much for the 35-year-old to handle? The Irish aren't out of College Football Playoff contention just yet, but it will need to win out and perhaps hope other contending teams gather up multiple losses.

The Huskies, led by head coach Thomas Hammock, made sure his team came ready to play in a game that was considered a tune-up scrimmage against the Irish. Northern Illinois held the Irish offense to only 286 total yards, two turnovers, and an average of 4.7 yards per play, respectively.

The pure, raw emotion from Hammock conveys just how enormous the upset win is for a program that went 10-15 over the last two seasons.

The win against Notre Dame marked the Huskies' first win over a top-5-ranked team in program history. Yes, the Huskies being placed as one of the 25 best teams is monumental, but a case can be made that Northern Illinois should be ranked above the Irish after Saturday's historic victory.

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