Notre Dame Ranks 6th In Lindy's Sports Preseason Magazine Rankings

Notre Dame will look to build on its 2024 season that saw the Irish set a program record in wins on their way to the national championship game. An encore is the expectation and the Irish are a consensus Top 10 preseason team. Lindy's Sports released its preseason college football preview magazine and the Irish ranked 6th nationally.

The No. 6 national ranking is the same spot that Notre Dame ranked in the Athlon Sports preseason magazine. Although Lindy's ranks the Irish sixth it's clear they are not as high on Notre Dame as Athlon or other preseason publications. 

Despite Notre Dame ranking 6th in the preseason rankings, Lindy's Sports doesn't have the Irish as one of its playoff teams. It has Ohio State, LSU, Oregon, Alabama, Georgia, Miami and SMU all earning at-large bids but it does not have Notre Dame in the playoff. 

Here's what Lindy's had to say about Notre Dame:

"We'll know early if Notre Dame's playoff expectation is warranted when the Irish play Miami, Texas A&M and Arkansas in the first four weeks. With only six players drafted, Notre Dame returns the wealth of a squad that was a few plays away from winning it all." - Lindy's Sports

Lindy's lower opinion of Notre Dame is also evident in the unit rankings. Notre Dame ranked in the top four in four different categories according to Athlon Sports, which trailed only Texas. The Notre Dame backfield ranked No. 2, the offensive line ranked No. 1, the Irish linebackers ranked No. 3 and the secondary ranked No. 3. Notre Dame's defensive line ranked No. 6 in the Athlon rankings.

Looking at Lindy's, their backfield and secondary both ranked No. 3 in their unit Top 10 rankings. The Notre Dame offensive line was the only other unit that ranked in the Top 10, and the Irish ranked at the bottom at No. 10. The Notre Dame defensive line and linebackers failed to make the Top 10 from Lindy's. 

Not having the defensive line ranked is a debatable, but not having the linebackers ranked in the Top 10 is an egregious mistake. 

On top of not valuing Notre Dame's overall talent, it is clear Lindy's Sports is very concerned about the Notre Dame quarterback position. It started its ranking preview of Notre Dame with the statement "If they can find a quarterback ...."