Notre Dame, Two Irish Opponents Ranked In Top 10 of ESPN Power Rankings
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The College Football season is just under a week away and ESPN has released its last Power Rankings, and as expected the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are ranked quite high. The Irish are No. 3 in the ESPN Power Rankings, and three Irish opponents are also ranked.
Notre Dame ranks in the Top 5 along with No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Georgia, No. 4 Oregon and No. 5 Texas. Here is what ESPN had to say about the Irish ranking No. 3.
"After being left out of the CFP at the end of the 2025 season, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman is telling his team to "leave no doubt" this season. Undoubtedly, the Irish will miss explosive running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, who combined for 2,046 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns last season. Aneyas Williams steps into a starting role, and quarterback CJ Carr might have to be even more potent in the passing game." – Mark Schlabach, ESPN
Having Notre Dame ranked third was not a surprise, considering how much ESPN has praised the Irish in recent months. Earlier this week ESPN released its final playoff projection and Schlabach, as well as fellow ESPN college football writer Kyle Bonagura, has the Irish advancing to the national title game. Fellow ESPN writer Bill Connelly projected Notre Dame to win the national championship in their preseason magazine.
The surprise was that BYU was ranked No. 6 in the ESPN Power Rankings. BYU is a consistent Top 15-20 team in other magazines, and the Cougars ranked 14th in the Associated Press Top 25 and 15th in the Coaches Poll. Seeing BYU ranked No. 6 was a surprise, but also shows that Notre Dame's schedule is tougher than perceived. Here is what Schlabach had to say about the Cougars:
"After the Cougars went 23-4 and narrowly missed the CFP the past two seasons, they could be in position to unseat Texas Tech in the Big 12. There's new leadership on defense after coordinator Jay Hill left to join Michigan's staff. Kalani Sitake promoted defensive ends coach Kelly Poppinga to replace him. Will the Cougars be as good as last season when they ranked third in the Big 12 in scoring defense, giving up 19.1 points per game?"
Right behind BYU was the Miami Hurricanes, who ranks No. 7 in the ESPN Power Rankings. Miami is also ranked 7th in the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll, so this is consistent with other rankings. Here is what Schlabach had to say about the Hurricanes:
"After falling just short of winning the program's first national title since 2001, Miami reloaded with one of the top transfer portal classes and might be right back in the mix. Quarterback Darian Mensah should make a smooth transition coming from Duke, and tailback Mark Fletcher Jr. and slot receiver Malachi Toney are back. But Miami will have four new starting offensive linemen. Two starting jobs seem to remain unsettled."
Notre Dame had a third opponent in the ESPN Power Rankings, with the SMU Mustangs ranking No. 23. This is a bit lower for SMU, who ranked 19th and 20th in the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll, respectively.
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