Know Thy Opponent: Navy Football Video

Here's an "inside" look at the Naval Academy's football program -- as they prepared to play San Jose State last week...

LINK:  NAVY FOOTBALL

Even Bob Stoops Questions ND's #10 Ranking

You can add Oklahoma head football coach Bob Stoops to the bandwagon of those questioning why Notre Dame is ranked only 10th in the first College Football Playoff Ranking.

Here's Stoops on his radio show last night:

LINK:  STOOPS ON NOTRE DAME

Factoring Academics Into CFB Playoff Rankings

The folks at ESPN -- who rarely ever talk about graduation rates of college student-athletes -- created a formula called ESPN GRADE which factors in graduation rates when ranking teams. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't get any play...

Well, ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook penned this piece where he took the College Football Playoff Rankings and "mashed-up" the ESPN GRADE ranking system against their TOP 25.  Here's the new rankings of teams based on graduation rates:

LINK:  CFB PLAYOFF RANKING

Rolling Stone's Take: "Worldwide Cheerleader"

Notre Dame fans are going to want to read this article penned by the Rolling Stone's Jordan Burchette about ESPN's "cheerleading" for the SEC...

LINK:  THE WORLDWIDE CHEERLEADER

ND Go Irish Blog Follower Count: 950,000 !!!

At 11:23 PM ET last night a Notre Dame fan from Marble Falls, TX became ND GO IRISH BLOG unique follower #950,000.

Moving ever close to the ONE MILLION mark...

Thanks again for making the ND GO IRISH BLOG one of your Notre Dame stops on the worldwide web!

Notre Dame Ranked #10 in CFB Playoff Ranking

Well, the "first-ever" College Football Playoff Poll was released in the past 30 minutes and our Fighting Irish are ranked #10 -- with six weeks left in the college football season.

If you look at the rankings -- each of the "Power Five" Conferences have a team ranked ahead of Notre Dame -- is that a coincidence?  I don't think so. 

We're the "eighth best" one-loss team in the country?  Really???

Here's the TOP TWENTY-FIVE:

1.  Mississippi State
2.  Florida State
3.  Auburn
4.  Ole Miss
5.  Oregon
6.  Alabama
7.  TCU
8.  Michigan State
9.  Kansas State
10.  NOTRE DAME
11.  Georgia
12.  Arizona
13.  Baylor
14.  Arizona State
15.  Nebraska
16.  Ohio State
17.  Utah
18.  Oklahoma
19.  LSU
20.  West Virginia
21.  Clemson
22.  UCLA
23.  East Carolina
24.  Duke
25.  Louisville

LINK:  ESPN STORY