College football rankings: Preseason top 25 – Clemson at No. 1, SEC owns half of top 10

7. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Sacrificing their cherished status as an independent for this COVID-altered season and joining the ACC for one year only, Notre Dame has the potential to make some noise. In fact, you could make the argument that playing an ACC-only schedule actually makes the slate easier to deal with for the Fighting Irish. Now it’s all about Brian Kelly’s team capitalizing on that and challenging Clemson in the conference.

Quarterback Ian Book’s decision to return for his senior season is a critical one for the Irish. At his best, he’s looked like one of the best at the position in the country. The biggest hope is that he has a full season of consistent high-end play, which wasn’t the case last year. That will be more crucial, though, given a new cast of receivers and an indistinguishable running back room. What will help is one of the best and most experienced offensive lines in college football.

The defense should raise some eyebrows, though, in a manner of potential concern. There are notable playmakers such as Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Ade Ogundeji and Shaun Crawford. However, the Irish are thinner on basically every level of the defense than they were a season ago, which could ultimately put more pressure on the offense to carry this team to success.

In truth, though, the talent in South Bend should be enough for them to cruise through most of the ACC. The question will be how they stack up against teams like North Carolina and Florida State but, most importantly, if they are in the same class as Clemson.