The Fighting Irish supporters might sit there and think that with a dominating performance they should head to Arizona for a rematch of last years Fiesta Bowl but there are several reasons why the Irish should not be ranked ahead of the Michigan. Obviously this is all under the assumption that Notre Dame does in fact beat USC to improve to 11-1.
Rematch Theory
Sure we just saw Ohio St. Michigan, really the only point Notre Dame or any pollsters could make in ranking the Irish ahead of Michigan. But so quickly do we forget that we have already seen Ohio St. Notre Dame this calender year in the Fiesta Bowl. Notre Dame lost worse than the Wolverines, 14 to 3, and their game was on a neutral field. We've seen both and if you want to say last years game is irrelevant thats your personal opinion, I see a better Ohio St. team this year and the same Notre Dame team as last year. The results would be the same or worse.
Quality Victories
One way I like to look at the talent of teams is who have they beaten and how good are those teams. My Power Rankings is solely based on Quality Wins and Bad Losses, as judged by me. Taking the Wolverines and Irish best two victories and comparing which are better there is no question in my mind nor should there be in yours that the Wolverines have the advantage.
Michigan would finish the season with wins over two one loss top 10 teams while Notre Dame's big wins would be against two teams that both finished with a minimum of 2 losses.
Georgia Tech still has an opportunity and a legit chance of losing to either Georgia or in the ACC Title Game and USC could lose to UCLA.
Notre Dame's wins would be impressive as both could be conference champs, but still not as good as Michigan's victories.
Quality of Loss
Everyone likes to look at the quality of the loss when determining who is the better team. Well lets look at it objectively losing to the unanimous #1 team in the country in their stadium by 3 points, or losing at home to what would amount to a top 3 team at home by 26 points. Not very difficult to give the advantage to Michigan losing at 3 on the road versus Notre Dame losing by 26 at home.
Comparitive Schedule
The Wolverines and the Fighting Irish had two common opponents in Penn St. and Michigan St. The Wolverines played a close game against Penn St. on the road and dominated Michigan St. at home. The Fighting Irish did the exact opposite, beatdown of Penn St. at home close game at Michigan St. Moot point.
Head to Head
Did you watch the matchup of Michigan and Notre Dame? Because if you watched the game there was no doubt left on that field that Michigan was the better team. That Michigan had a defense that could slow down Quinn's gang and that the Irish could not cover Mario Manningham. 26 point victory on the road could not get more convincing.
Brady Quinn currently has 5 interceptions on the season, 3 of them came against the Wolverines.
With all of these facts its just illogical to rank the Fighting Irish ahead of the Wolverines. Which is exactly why Notre Dame will not end up ahead of Michigan in any of the computer polls. Pollsters if Notre Dame wins, their only hope lies in your hands, look at the facts and rank them appropriately.
Rematch Theory
Sure we just saw Ohio St. Michigan, really the only point Notre Dame or any pollsters could make in ranking the Irish ahead of Michigan. But so quickly do we forget that we have already seen Ohio St. Notre Dame this calender year in the Fiesta Bowl. Notre Dame lost worse than the Wolverines, 14 to 3, and their game was on a neutral field. We've seen both and if you want to say last years game is irrelevant thats your personal opinion, I see a better Ohio St. team this year and the same Notre Dame team as last year. The results would be the same or worse.
Quality Victories
One way I like to look at the talent of teams is who have they beaten and how good are those teams. My Power Rankings is solely based on Quality Wins and Bad Losses, as judged by me. Taking the Wolverines and Irish best two victories and comparing which are better there is no question in my mind nor should there be in yours that the Wolverines have the advantage.
Michigan would finish the season with wins over two one loss top 10 teams while Notre Dame's big wins would be against two teams that both finished with a minimum of 2 losses.
Georgia Tech still has an opportunity and a legit chance of losing to either Georgia or in the ACC Title Game and USC could lose to UCLA.
Notre Dame's wins would be impressive as both could be conference champs, but still not as good as Michigan's victories.
Quality of Loss
Everyone likes to look at the quality of the loss when determining who is the better team. Well lets look at it objectively losing to the unanimous #1 team in the country in their stadium by 3 points, or losing at home to what would amount to a top 3 team at home by 26 points. Not very difficult to give the advantage to Michigan losing at 3 on the road versus Notre Dame losing by 26 at home.
Comparitive Schedule
The Wolverines and the Fighting Irish had two common opponents in Penn St. and Michigan St. The Wolverines played a close game against Penn St. on the road and dominated Michigan St. at home. The Fighting Irish did the exact opposite, beatdown of Penn St. at home close game at Michigan St. Moot point.
Head to Head
Did you watch the matchup of Michigan and Notre Dame? Because if you watched the game there was no doubt left on that field that Michigan was the better team. That Michigan had a defense that could slow down Quinn's gang and that the Irish could not cover Mario Manningham. 26 point victory on the road could not get more convincing.
Brady Quinn currently has 5 interceptions on the season, 3 of them came against the Wolverines.
With all of these facts its just illogical to rank the Fighting Irish ahead of the Wolverines. Which is exactly why Notre Dame will not end up ahead of Michigan in any of the computer polls. Pollsters if Notre Dame wins, their only hope lies in your hands, look at the facts and rank them appropriately.
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