Digging Deep: How Notre Dame Stacks Up Among The Nation's Best

Notre Dame has been one of the nation's premier programs since its post-2016 overhaul.

The final bye week of the 2019 season for Notre Dame is upon us and a vitally important trip to the Big House (of mostly horrors...) looms for the Fighting Irish. Coming on the heels of a thoroughly satisfying win over USC, now is a perfect time to try and establish some context for how the Irish have been performing in comparison to the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

- ND Since the Reboot: Where the Irish Rank Over the Last Two and a Half Seasons

When all the coaching staff and program changes were made in the wake of the 2016 season, I made the comment to fellow Irish Maven contributor Sean Cameron that Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick had gambled and hired Brian Kelly to replace … Brian Kelly.

A move that was met at the time with all the enthusiasm of cutting one in church has paid off very handsomely for Savvy Jack. Things are truly back to the “status quo” for ND.

While things are going, objectively speaking, very well, there is still a sizable and vocal portion of the fan base that is unsatisfied at best, self righteously and self importantly outraged and pining for golden days of glory gone by. But hey, that’s part of the deal at ND even in the absolute best of times. Holtz and Devine were hammered for not being as good as Ara, Ara “couldn’t win the big one” and wasn’t as good as Leahy, Leahy unraveled in the early fifties and wasn’t as good as Rockne. You get the picture. Plus, there’s a segment of every team’s fan base that is going to look for, and revel in, reasons to be miserable. That’s just a part of sports (and life).

Since the start of 2017, as these numbers will show, Notre Dame has been, quite easily, one of the 10 best Power 5 programs in the country. And with all respect due to a team like UCF, in my mind, that means being 1 of the 10 best programs in all of FBS.

Here are the top 15 programs over the last two and a half seasons, broken down by overall record, record against teams that finished (or are currently) in the AP Top 25/15/10/5. Since this season is only at the halfway point, current rankings are plainly all I could use. But, unlike what so many pundits like to do, I otherwise only looked at games against teams that FINISHED ranked.

I have no idea why people like to give programs credit (or derision) for a result based on the ranking(s) when the game was played. I think it’s wildly misleading. In any event, here is how I’ve ranked the Top 15. Feel free to re-rank as you see fit in the comments!

The Obvious Alpha and Dabo-mega

ALABAMA

Overall Record: 33-2
Against Top 25 teams: 7-2
Against Top 15 teams: 5-2
Against Top 10 teams: 5-2
Against Top 5 teams: 2-1
1 National Championship
2 Playoff Berths

CLEMSON

Overall Record: 33-2
Against Top 25 teams: 8-1
Against Top 15 teams: 5-1
Against Top 10 teams: 3-1
Against Top 5 teams: 2-1
1 National Championship
2 Playoff Berths

OKLAHOMA - Boomer QB Transfer Sooner

Overall Record: 30-4
Against Top 25 teams: 8-3
Against Top 15 teams: 6-3
Against Top 10 teams: 4-3
Against Top 5 teams: 1-2
2 Playoff Berths

OHIO STATE - The Bipolar Buckeyes aka “Damn you Iowa and Purdue!!”

Overall Record: 31-3
Against Top 25 teams: 9-1
Against Top 15 teams: 6-1
Against Top 10 teams: 2-1
Against Top 5 teams: 0-1

GEORGIA - Kirby & the can’t get over the hump Dawgs

Overall Record: 29-6
Against Top 25 teams: 7-5
Against Top 15 teams: 6-5
Against Top 10 teams: 4-5
Against Top 5 teams: 1-2
1 Playoff Berth

NOTRE DAME - BK 2.0 and the almoooost elite Irish

Overall Record: 27-5
Against Top 25 teams: 7-5
Against Top 15 teams: 4-4
Against Top 10 teams: 0-3
Against Top 5 teams: 0-2

LSU - Geaux Coach O!

Overall Record: 25-7
Against Top 25 teams: 5-6
Against Top 15 teams: 5-4
Against Top 10 teams: 3-3
Against Top 5 teams: 0-2

WISCONSIN - Play someone OOC!

Overall Record: 27-6
Against Top 25 teams: 4-4
Against Top 15 teams: 1-2
Against Top 10 teams: 0-1
Against Top 5 teams: 0-1

PENN STATE - Hey, it’s Franklin, losing big games

Overall Record: 26-6
Against Top 25 teams: 4-5
Against Top 15 teams: 0-5
Against Top 10 teams: 0-2
Against Top 5 teams: 0-2

WASHINGTON - Kings of the Wacky PAC

Overall Record: 25-9
Against Top 25 teams: 1-3
Against Top 15 teams: 1-2
Against Top 10 teams: 1-2
Against Top 5 teams: 0-1

AUBURN - Soon to hit the bus Gus?!

Overall Record: 23-10
Against Top 25 teams: 6-8
Against Top 15 teams: 4-7
Against Top 10 teams: 2-7
Against Top 5 teams: 2-3

WASHINGTON STATE - The Pullman Patsie Beaters

Overall Record: 23-9
Against Top 25 teams: 3-3
Against Top 15 teams: 1-2
Against Top 10 teams: 0-0
Against Top 5 teams: 0-0

MICHIGAN - Nice ROI on 7 million dollars a year, guys

Overall Record: 23-9
Against Top 25 teams: 3-8
Against Top 15 teams: 0-8
Against Top 10 teams: 0-4
Against Top 5 teams: 0-3

TEXAS - Better but still not great Longhorns

Overall Record: 21-12
Against Top 25 teams: 2-8
Against Top 15 teams: 2-7
Against Top 10 teams: 2-5
Against Top 5 teams: 1-3

IOWA - We Crushed The Buckeyes in ‘17!

Overall Record: 21-11
Against Top 25 teams: 1-8
Against Top 15 teams: 1-4
Against Top 10 teams: 1-3
Against Top 5 teams: 1-0