About an hour before Notre Dame officially moved up to #6 in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings, Irish quarterback Riley Leonard was all smiles when asked at how he now views his Notre Dame experience with the Irish in the heart of a playoff race.

“I think the coolest thing is we are in November—getting into late November and getting to control your destiny is something I haven’t been able to experience,” Leonard, who transferred from Duke, explained. “Every day you wake up and are like, ‘this is cool.’ You have that motivation and that extra urge to go above and beyond and go the extra mile because everything we want is right in front of us and we’re in control of our own destiny.”

If the College Football Playoffs began today, the Irish would be the #8 seed and would host Alabama in the opening round at Notre Dame Stadium with the winner then facing #1 Oregon in the CFP quarterfinals.

While Leonard was willing to concede extra motivation with what remains on the line, fellow captain Xavier Watts stood with the mantra laid out by Irish head coach Marcus Freeman.

“You can obviously look at and say we have two more games and it’s getting close to the end and you need to fully lock into what is coming up next but at the same time you don’t want to look too far ahead into the future,” Watts says. “There are still two weeks left of football and anything can happen. What Coach Freeman says, blocking out the noise and focus on what we need to do right now.”

Notre Dame (9-1) owns one win over a CFP Top 25 team as Texas A&M remains at #15. Notre Dame’s matchup this week vs Army will now be a Top 20 showdown as the undefeated Black Knights move up five spots to #19 despite being on a bye.

If the playoffs started today…. It would look like this:
#12 BYU at #5 Ohio State (winner to face #4 Boise State)
#9 Alabama at #8 Notre Dame (winner to face #1 Oregon)
#11 Georgia at #6 Penn St (winner to face #3 Miami)
#10 Ole Miss at #7 Indiana (winner to face #2 Texas)

The top 4 seeds in the 12 team playoff must be conference champions. As a result, while ranked #2, Ohio St is the 5th seed because #1 Oregon is the projected Big 10 champion. Miami while ranked 8th, is seeded 3rd as the projected ACC Champion. Boise State, while ranked 12th, is seeded 4th as the 4th highest ranked conference champion.

College Football Playoff Rankings:
1. Oregon (11-0)
2. Ohio St (9-1)
3. Texas (9-1)
4. Penn St (9-1)
5. Indiana (10-0)
6. Notre Dame (9-1)
7. Alabama (8-2)
8. Miami (9-1)
9. Ole Miss (8-2)
10. Georgia (8-2)
11. Tennessee (8-2)
12. Boise St (9-1)
13. SMU (9-1)
14. BYU (9-1)
15. Texas A&M (8-2)
16. Colorado (8-2)
17. Clemson (8-2)
18. South Carolina (7-3)
19. Army (9-0)
20. Tulane (9-2)
21. Arizona St (7-2)
22. Iowa St (8-2)
23. Missouri (7-3)
24. UNLV (8-2)
25. Illinois (7-3)