Boo Corrigan reveals factors for putting Louisville ahead of Notre Dame

The first College Football Playoff Rankings were released on Tuesday providing the college football landscape with their first look at what the College Football Playoff could potentially look like at the end of the season.

The top six teams rightfully get most of the attention in the rankings due to the significance of a top-four ranking, but there’s a ton of intrigue surrounding the remainder of the Top 25 as well. One of those points being the rise of Louisville and the slight step back for Notre Dame compared to the previous AP Top 25 Poll.

The Fighting Irish ranked No. 15 in the first CFP Rankings after being ranked No. 14 the previous week, while Louisville jumped up the No. 13 spot after being ranked No. 18 the week prior by the Associated Press. And following the newly released rankings, NC State Director of Athletics and College Football Playoff selection committee chair Boo Corrigan explained the committee’s logic behind ranking the Cardinals over the Fighting Irish.

“Well, again, I think there’s head to head, as we’ve talked about before, is always going to be a factor, and I think the 33-20 win that Louisville had over Notre Dame, the additional loss to Ohio State, again, really good football teams as we’re looking at it, but to this one, we talked a great deal about the Louisville win over Notre Dame, the Pitt game,” Corrigan explained.

Louisville’s impressive 33-20 win over Notre Dame clearly holds weight in their place in the rankings, as they scored 16 points in a row in the fourth quarter to upset the then No. 10 ranked Fighting Irish in Week 6.

The Cardinals did follow their big win with a disappointing 38-21 loss to Pitt in their next game, which represents their only loss of the season so far. But Louisville being undermanned in that matchup did play a factor in the CFP committee’s decision in their rankings.

“For Louisville, their running back [Jawhar Jordan], I think he ended up with two carries and was out, but again, looking at the total body of work, we were more comfortable as a group with Louisville ahead of Notre Dame,” Corrigan concluded.

Notre Dame’s the second-highest-ranked two-loss team in the CFP rankings only behind LSU, and there’s no doubt they boast two of the most impressive losses you can have falling to Louisville and Ohio State who came in at No. 1 in the recent rankings. Wins over ranked teams like USC and Duke definitely help Notre Dame’s case, but it will definitely be interesting to see how they move the remainder of the year as they no longer face any ranked opponents.