Irish Breakdown

Notre Dame Hit With Final Disrespect in Closing Moments of 2025 Season

One last dose of disrespect for Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish on 2025's way out the door
Nick Shepkowski|
Nov 22, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players after scoring against the Syracuse Orange during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium.
Nov 22, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman celebrates with players after scoring against the Syracuse Orange during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. | Michael Caterina-Imagn Images

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Notre Dame Fighting Irish

It wouldn't be right for the 2025 college football season to end without Notre Dame being handed out one last sign of disrespect.

It happened as the regular season drew to a close, with Alabama barely getting by lowly Auburn, and passing the Irish in the College Football Playoff rankings.

That small move led to Notre Dame being left out of the College Football Playoff, something Nick Saban of all people thought was wrong as recently as Monday.

So it's almost fitting that as the season officially ended Monday night and the final AP Poll was released on Tuesday morning, that Notre Dame got one last dose of disrespect.

Notre Dame Finishes 10th in Final AP Poll

The final AP Poll was released Tuesday morning with Indiana finishing first and Miami second, which we all knew would be the case. For Notre Dame, the interesting part is what comes down the list a bit, though.

Despite losing four games, three of them in complete blowout fashion at Florida State, to Georgia, and to Indiana, Alabama still finished one spot ahead of the Fighting Irish. Alabama checked in ninth while Notre Dame rounded out the top 10.

See the entire poll below.

1. Indiana
2. Miami
3. Ole Miss
4. Oregon
5. Ohio State
6. Georgia
7. Texas Tech
8. Texas A&M
9. Alabama
10. Notre Dame
11. BYU
12. Texas

13. Oklahoma
14. Utah
15. Vanderbilt
16. Virginia
17. Iowa
18. Tualne
19. James Madison
20. USC
21. Michigan
22. Houston
23. Navy
24. North Texas
25. TCU

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

Like Ricky Bobby said in Talladega Nights, "If you ain't first, you're last" and when it comes to Notre Dame's expectations, that's partly true.

However, when you rank teams based on performance, shouldn't results actually matter?

The final AP Poll plays right into the hand of the SEC again, as it talks up a conference that did nothing of note all season long outside of against each other.

What was the SEC's biggest win against a non-conference opponent this year? Outside of Texas A&M getting by Notre Dame, was it LSU beating Clemson back in Week 1?

The final AP Poll is a reflection of the SEC bias that still exists and that played a part in Alabama wrongly getting into the Playoff over Notre Dame in early December. The voters saw Alabama then beat another far from great Oklahoma team in the First Round, and get their heads knocked off by Indiana.

Is it punishment for Notre Dame not playing in the Pop-Tarts Bowl? Perhaps, if you want to count not playing a bunch of backups in what would have been a meaningless game, but as we saw throughout, the SEC biasedness followed through to the very last moment of the season.

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Nick Shepkowski
NICK SHEPKOWSKI

Managing Editor for Notre Dame On SI. Started covering Chicago sports teams for WSCR the Score, and over the years worked with CBS Radio, Audacy, NBC Sports, and FOX Sports as a contributor before running the Notre Dame wire site for USA TODAY.

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