After the Notre Dame football team lost a 41-40 Saturday night game to Texas A&M, most everyone around the program knew that the team's playoff hopes were on life support, if not already declared dead. The Sunday afternoon release of the AP Top 25 underlined that message in spades; however, the rankings did also offer a shred of hope.
The Irish haven't had a great season by any stretch. However, no one can dispute that they've gone toe-to-toe with two teams who are very, very good and have lost by a grand total of 4 points.