Notre Dame Football: Irish remain #2 in college football playoff ranking

As more and more college football games are cancelled, the more and more these college football playoff rankings feel both unsurprising — and infuriating. This week’s unveiling finds the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at #2 once again, while the rest of the top 4 are unchanged.

The biggest mystery is what the committee will end up doing with the Ohio State Buckeyes. With the cancellation of The Game with the Michigan Wolverines (Skunkbear COVID), OSU finishes the regular season at 5-0 and doesn’t qualify for the Big 10 Championship game.

FIVE GAMES.

So — what the hell are we even doing here? Even if (really, when) the Big 10 changes their rules for the championship game to let OSU slide in, a win over the Northwestern Wildcats to get to 6-0 is still laughable compared to resumes from the rest of the top 6 and in-state power — the Cincinnati Bearcats.

I understand that Ohio State is extremely talented, and is likely one of the top 4 teams in the country — but half of a season? Really? All these years of flipping out about Notre Dame’s lack of a 13th data point (which Ohio State and Alabama have blown up in the past) and the committee may put a team in the playoff with less than HALF of the games played?

Why even play the game? Why not just let the recruiting analysts and data nerds and NFL scouts choose the top 4 each year in August and then we can sit around and twiddle our thumbs for the next 4 months as we wait on the playoffs?

This isn’t Ohio State’s fault — but that doesn’t mean they should be given a pass because their conference screwed this whole thing up from start to (almost) finish.

Whatever.