2024 Preseason AP Poll Highlights Manageable Path for Notre Dame Football

Notre Dame plays big-name teams in 2024 but does so in a very manageable fashion

The Florida State Seminoles and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish met for the 9th time on Saturday in South Bend. The Fighting Irish delt a blow out to the Seminoles, and with a 42-13 defeat Florida State's 36 bowl-streak is at jeopardy once more / Andrew Salinero/FSView

A quick look at Notre Dame's 2024 schedule shows games at both Texas A&M and USC as well as a home date with Florida State.

It's a pretty solid name-schedule, even though only one of those games takes place at Notre Dame Stadium.

It's also a user-friendly schedule for Notre Dame to reach the College Football Playoff with, preferably as a high seed. Monday's release of the preseason AP Poll speaks to that.

Notre Dame Rated Higher Than All Opponents

7️⃣ in the AP Poll#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/xEgcm6gN4W

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 12, 2024

Notre Dame checked in seventh in the AP Poll, three spots ahead of its top-ranked 2024 opponent, Florida State. Florida State checks in 10th while Texas A&M was No. 20 while USC is No. 23. Louisville was the highest in the receiving votes category, essentially making it the 26th rated team in these rankings.

As you can see, there is no team that is viewed as a real national championship contender that Notre Dame has to deal with compared to recent years when the likes of Clemson, USC, Ohio State, and Georgia would all get the consideration.

Favorable Middle-Tier Schedule

Sure, four of Notre Dame's 2024 opponents check in the top 26 ranked teams. From then on there is nobody.

The middle-tier teams on Notre Dame's schedule are viewed as being weaker than usual.

Unlike last year where Duke was a solid team that came the week after the game of the year, the vast majority of what Notre Dame plays from the ACC won't be sniffing anywhere near double-digit wins.

Lack of Tough Back-to-Backs

Louisville s Jawhar Jordan scores a touchdown against Notre Dame game at L & N Stadium / Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Notre Dame played a four-week span last year against Ohio State, at Duke, at Louisville, and at home against USC.

This was on the heels of a first four weeks that saw Notre Dame play in Ireland and travel North Carolina State.

Notre Dame doesn't have what appear to be overly challenging back-to-backs this year.

It follows Texas A&M with Northern Illinois.

Louisville comes after Miami (Ohio) and before a bye week.

Florida State is off a bye week and before what is expected to be a poor Virgnia outfit.

Perhaps the most concerning of the schedule setup is playing in New York against Army the weekend before traveling to Los Angeles to take on USC.

Championship Schedule

There are names on this schedule, but it severely lacks those potential top-five opponents. Perhaps you can make the argument that Florida State will be that but that's based more on Florida State's chances of being unbeaten against a favorable schedule than it is on Florida State likely being a true national championship contender this year.

It's difficult to look at this schedule and not get excited if you're a Notre Dame fan and the preseason AP Poll only speaks to that.

—Enjoy free coverage of the Irish from Notre Dame Fighting Irish on SI—

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