The defending national champion Florida State Seminoles are ranked #1 in the country in the pre-season college football coaches poll that just came out today. Alabama, last year’s runner-up, came in at #2. Notre Dame is ranked in the top 25. The Irish start the season at #17.
Five of the teams that Notre Dame will face this season are in the top 25. Notre Dame will face Florida State, Stanford, USC, Arizona State, and North Carolina. Long-time rival University of Michigan did not make the top 25.
Notre Dame’s first game of the season will be at home against Rice on August 30 at 3:30 pm. Notre Dame will face Michigan the second week of the season. They close out their schedule against USC in Los Angeles.
This is the first year of a playoff system in college system. The previous Bowl Championship Series was highly controversial, resulting in championship pairings between the top two teams based on a formula. The formula used two human polls and a computer ranking system. The new playoff system will include four teams selected from a thirteen person expert panel.
The full top 25 list is below:
1. Florida State
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Oregon
5. Auburn
6. Ohio State
7. UCLA
8. Michigan State
9. South Carolina
10. Baylor
11. Stanford
12. Georgia
13. LSU
14. Wisconsin
15. USC
16. Clemson
17. Notre Dame
18. Arizona State
19. Ole Miss
20. Texas A&M
21. Kansas State
22. Nebraska
23. North Carolina
24. Texas
25. Washington
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