Rankings drive ratings. People love to get entangled in the energy leading up to a high-ranked college football match-up. September 1st will offer us one of these match-ups to start the season when #14 ranked Michigan comes to South Bend to take on #12-ranked Notre Dame football. There is nothing like a top-15 clash against one of your biggest rivals, but do the numbers really matter?
Taking a look at sports-reference.com will give you all of the historical AP rankings for Notre Dame since the AP began ranking teams. The AP only ranked the top 10 or 20 teams until expanding to ranking the top 25 teams in 1989.