Consider this a surprise: Notre Dame is No. 5 in the first set of rankings unveiled by the College Football Playoff selection committee Tuesday night.
The 7-1 Irish are the second highest-ranked one-loss team, behind No. 4 Alabama and ahead of undefeated Baylor, TCU, Michigan State and Iowa. The top six: No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 6 Baylor.
Temple, which Notre Dame beat last weekend, ranked No. 22. Stanford checked in at No. 11, with Notre Dame set to travel to Palo Alto to face the Cardinal Nov. 28. That'll likely be Notre Dame's only other opportunity to beat a top-25 team -- unless Navy moves into the top 25 at some point -- which is good news given the opportunities for big wins from the teams around the Irish in the rankings.
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This weekend, No. 1 Clemson plays No. 16 Florida State; No. 8 TCU plays No. 14 Oklahoma State; and No. 2 LSU plays No. 4 Alabama. Next week, Alabama plays No. 20 Mississippi State, No. 6 Baylor plays No. 15 Oklahoma and No. 13 Memphis plays No. 25 Houston.
The winner of LSU and Alabama likely will go on to play Florida, which ranks No. 10 in the current poll, in the SEC Championship, while the winner of Michigan State and Ohio State likely will face currently-undefeated Iowa in the Big Ten Championship. Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma have not played each other yet in Big 12 play, either.
"They have their strength of schedule in front of them," Jeff Long, chair of the selection committee and Arkansas' athletic director, said of the Big 12. "We rank to this point in time and those teams just haven't played their strong teams yet."