The AP Poll has 65 sportswriters and broadcasters.

The Coaches Poll has 62 head coaches voting.

The only poll that agrees with you has 13 members. Most of whom are former coaches (3), ADs (5), a former USC player, a former Chief of Staff (Army), and a couple of guys from the academic world. None of whom have any affiliation to Notre Dame that I am aware of, with the exception of Ronnie Lott as our chief rival. Michigan has the benefit of a fellow Big Ten member on the committee.

• Rob Mullens, Chair (University of Oregon)
• Gary Barta (University of Iowa athletics director)
• Frank Beamer (Former Virginia Tech head coach)
• Paola Boivin (Arizona State University professor)
• Joe Castiglione (University of Oklahoma athletics director)
• Ken Hatfield (Former head coach)
• Chris Howard (Robert Morris University president)
• Ronnie Lott (Former Southern California All-American)
• Terry Mohajir (Arkansas State University athletics director)
• Ray Odierno (Former Chief of Staff, United States Army)
• R.C. Slocum (Former head coach, Texas A&M interim athletics director)
• Todd Stansbury (Georgia Tech athletics director)
• Scott Stricklin (University of Florida athletics director)

Two of the main reasons that two out of the three polls agree with me are that late losses and the number of losses count. Michigan just got rolled while Notre Dame has been rolling opponents since the knock down in Ann Arbor. How will Michigan respond? We know how ND got off the mat...Rick

Even watch the games. Most coaches have a flunky underling submit their votes. Stop trying to shill for this shit sandwich of a season. In no world should we be ranked ahead of Michigan based on the data we have. Our bullshit November scheduled wins does nothing to erase the ass-raping we received in Ann Arbor (whore).

know more football than you.

Michigan was also raped. At home, in front of Ann Arbor. Four days ago.

They were also beat on two other times...Rick

Which makes me more qualified than most voters.

And Michigan lost to teams ranked ahead of them, just like ND. Their ass rapings came at the hands of the number one and number 8 teams. Ours came at the hands of a mediocre big ten team that deserves to be ranked ahead of us.

ahead of Michigan, but behind Appalachian State, Memphis and Boise State?

Not sure I agree with that.

in the AP and Coaches Polls, respectively, so I am not sure what you talking about Wilber.

I just re-read my post and realize I may have been a little obtuse.

I thought you/we were isolating two specific points of comparison when trying to rank one team vis-à-vis another team (total number of losses and late season losses).

I was working under the assumption that you would rank Boise State, Memphis, and Appalachian State ahead of Notre Dame, on the basis of those two specific points of comparison. Sliding those teams up in the rankings would push Notre Dame down to #17.

The number of losses are not as important when comparing upper tier to lower tier teams that play decidedly weaker schedules like App State.

...but what happened in Ann Arbor was not just a loss.

It was complete and utter destruction.

It was a Viking raid level of destruction: village burned to the ground, fields salted, men left to die in the cold, and women taken away as slaves. Notre Dame looked like a high school team while Michigan looked dominant.

Ten wins, beating a ranked opponent, gaudy point spreads...none of it matters. There's simply no way to recover from the disaster in Ann Arbor.

Our season ended that night, pure and simple.

Otherwise I think I know the answer to who makes it between Utah & OU should both win this weekend.

a team in their conference.

Assuming he is permitted to vote both for his team and for Utah, he could attempt to sandbag the process, but the voting format limits this. My recollection is they vote in tranches of six teams. Unless this has changed, he could defensibly vote Oklahoma 4 and vote Utah 6 behind UGA. That could overcome two other voters who voted Utah 4 and Oklahoma 5. But if there is a clear consensus of Utah above Oklahoma, he can't overcome that. If it's pretty split, he can makeup one additional vote. Of course, since Baylor is ranked 6 spots ahead of Oregon, next week's games could sway someone to flip Oklahoma over Utah.

Of course, this also assumes that no one has a two-loss Georgia team in front of one-loss Oklahoma. Given that Utah is currently ranked above Oklahoma, it's possible someone decides to slot UGA between them. In particular, Oregon's AD has an incentive to sandbag OU to prop up Utah. And since Oregon's AD doesn't have to recuse himself for either Utah or OU, he can wax poetic about margins of victory or whatever factor helps Utah to overcome it's fairly weak schedule.