The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2025 season were barely off the air when Selection Committee Chair Mack Rhoades joined reporters for a media teleconference. And one of the biggest talking points of the night was Notre Dame’s place at No. 10, ahead of several one-loss teams with stronger résumés.
Rhoades, who also serves as Baylor’s athletic director, defended the committee’s evaluation of Notre Dame and shed light on how the group viewed the two-loss Irish.
“It’s a great question, and we had a lot of conversation about Notre Dame,” Rhoades said. “I think it starts with two losses totaling four points against two very, very good teams. Obviously, one of them ranked third in the country, and one ranked 18th.”
Notre Dame’s defeats to No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 18 Miami came by narrow margins. Since then, the Irish have rebounded with six consecutive wins, impressing the committee with their growth and consistency.
“Early on defensively, maybe they weren’t as good as what we thought they would be,” Rhoades said. “But most recently, it seems like they’ve been much, much better defensively. Six straight wins.”
Rhoades also praised Notre Dame’s offense, highlighting its balance and resilience. He singled out the running back duo of Jadarian Price and Jeremiah Love as one of the best combinations in the nation.
“You look at their backfield Jadarian Price and Jeremiah Love, you know, probably the best backfield in the country when you think about one-two punch,” Rhoades said. “Going into the Southern Cal game, they lost their starting center for the year, and they were able to overcome that and run for a bunch of yards again against Southern Cal. We think Notre Dame is a really solid football team on both sides of the ball.”
Rhoades added that freshman quarterback CJ Carr has provided stability and poise. “The quarterback play of CJ Carr, he’s, you know, as a freshman, he’s just been really good and really consistent for them,” he said. “At, to the point that team is getting better.”
When asked about why head-to-head results, like Miami’s win over Notre Dame, didn’t carry more weight, Rhoades clarified that such outcomes are only decisive under specific circumstances.
“Head-to-head really matters when the teams are comparable,” he said. “We look at that really, really closely. And again, I think back to Notre Dame, the committee felt strongly that that is a team that, when you look at week one to now, has improved, has gotten better, particularly when we think about defensively.”
For now, the committee’s first poll of 2025 positions Notre Dame firmly in the top 10, rewarded for steady improvement and a dominant backfield that Rhoades believes may be the best in the country.