CFB Playoff likes Notre Dame's strength of schedule, for now

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Notre Dame, in a bit of a shocker, checked in at No. 5 in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s first rankings released Tuesday night. It was a nod to the difficult nature of Notre Dame’s schedule — five power five opponents, two tough group of five teams and one cupcake.

Specifically, wins over No. 22 Temple, Navy and USC buoyed Notre Dame’s top-five ranking, as well as its two-point loss to No. 1 Clemson in South Carolina. That’s a strong resume, one recognized by the selection committee.

[MORE: Notre Dame’s playoff run built on lethal combo of resiliency, big plays]

Behind the Irish, though, lurk a number of teams that are still waiting to make a move.

The Big 12 still needs to be sorted out between No. 6 Baylor, No. 8 TCU, No. 14 Oklahoma State and No. 15 Oklahoma. Those four teams haven’t played each other yet; the first game between them is this weekend when TCU travels to Stillwater to face Oklahoma State.

"They have their strength of schedule in front of them," Jeff Long, chair of the selection committee and Arkansas' athletic director, said of the Big 12. "We rank to this point in time and those teams just haven't played their strong teams yet."

Michigan State, undefeated and ranked No. 7, still has to play No. 3 Ohio State. No. 2 LSU heads to Tuscaloosa to face No. 4 Alabama this weekend, and still has to play No. 18 Ole Miss (which beat Alabama earlier this year) and No. 19 Texas A&M. The winner of the SEC West will almost certainly play No. 10 Florida, which still plays No. 16 Florida State. The winner of the Big Ten East will likely play undefeated and ninth-ranked Iowa (which has Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska left).

[SHOP: Gear up for Notre Dame's playoff push]

With those games in mind, and the likelihood for at least one unforeseen upset, there’s going to be plenty of movement in these rankings over the next month. Notre Dame probably will be rewarded for going on the road and beating a 6-2 Pitt team, if that does happen, which should tee up the Irish to head to California to face a top-15-at-worst Stanford side (the Cardinal currently rank No. 11).

But that the selection committee so favorably viewed Notre Dame’s schedule to date is a good sign going forward, so long as the Irish avoid an upset before that season-ending trip to Palo Alto. Notre Dame in October had that two-point loss to Clemson, then beat Navy, USC and Temple.

“I think our last four games have been as good as anybody that's played in the country,” Kelly said. “I don't know where it stands up exactly. I just know we played a very good schedule in the month of October. We have to win more games, but I'll stand up our schedule to anybody else right now.”

[MORE: Statistically, Pitt looks favorable for Notre Dame]

Apparently, so will the selection committee, which means Notre Dame will kick off Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field as the nation’s No. 5 team.

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