For the most part, you only see top-25 rankings for the upcoming college football seasons, but Phil Steele annually puts out an extensive preview and has Notre Dame nearly at the top of his all-school preseason rankings.
The long-time college football writer has just Penn State above the Irish, followed by Texas at No. 3, Alabama, then Ohio State. Other teams of interest for Notre Dame that were ranked highly are Texas A&M at No. 9, LSU at No. 11, Michigan at No. 12, Miami at No. 14, Indiana at No. 16, and USC at No. 21.
A few of the teams inside Steele’s top-50 that the Irish face this year are Arkansas at No. 33, Boise State ranked No. 47 with NC State just missing out at No. 51. Notre Dame, on paper, has a very tough schedule that is very front-loaded, with the Hurricanes, Aggies, Razorbacks and Broncos all in the first five games of the season. Then the Trojans just a few weeks later, and then the slate gets much easier.
Steele knows college football, and while I’m not the biggest fan of preseason rankings, you love to see when Notre Dame is almost at the top of one.
Phil Steele’s Preseason Poll of all 136 FBS Schools pic.twitter.com/L1i751SiPr
— The Big Ten Huddle 🎙️ (@TheBigTenHuddle) July 9, 2025
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Phil Steele ranks Notre Dame No. 2 on his full team preseason rankings
