Notre Dame is #10 in the first College Football Playoff Rankings released on Tuesday and would be on the road at Penn State in the opening round of the new 12-team playoff if the postseason started today.

The Irish own two wins over teams ranked in the CFP Top 25, #14 Texas A&M and #22 Louisville. Notre Dame still has one more top 25 opponent vs #25 Army. Notre Dame also has the worst loss of any team in playoff contention, falling to Northern Illinois in week 2.

Undefeated Indiana is ranked 8th in the 1st rankings but would be the #9 seed if the playoffs started today, playing on the road at 8th seed Tennessee.

If that’s confusing, here’s why. The top 4 seeds in the 12 team playoff must be conference champions. As result, while ranked #2, Ohio St is the 5th seed because #1 Oregon is the projected Big 10 champion. BYU, while ranked #9, moves up to #4 in seeding because it is the highest ranked Big 12 team at this time.

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

Moments before the College Football Playoff Rankings were revealed, Notre Dame plays met with the media for their regularly scheduled weekly media interviews. Captain and safety Xavier Watts was asked what his message would be to younger players on the team about the rankings.

“Just kind of reinforce that there is a lot of football left to be played,” Watts explained. “There’s still 4 or 5 weeks left of football. Just try to focus on us. Obviously you are going to see stuff like that but to not pay attention to it that much. Just focus on winning out the rest of the season and the rest will play out on its own.”

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