College football just as unpredictable as ever in Week 10 - ESPN

The College Football Playoff rankings have a way of dividing the season into phases.

For the first two months, prior to the rankings' release, teams are jockeying for position, trying to build résumés strong enough to, at minimum, give themselves a realistic path to the 12-team field.

During that phase, there is a temptation to write off most teams with two losses and certainly any with three. Based on the limited history of the 12-team playoff, that has been the natural dividing line. Even some two-loss teams have been left out, so it has been reasonable to assume a third loss would be too much to overcome.

But this year, all bets are off.

If there has been a defining characteristic of this season, it's how often we've been forced to reconsider what we thought we knew. One of the biggest talking points coming out of the first CFP rankings was how low Notre Dame was at No. 11. This, of course, came after the Irish were the last team left out last year, when Miami leapfrogged them in the final rankings despite neither team playing on conference championship weekend.

The committee clearly wasn't impressed by what Notre Dame had accomplished to this point, leaving the Irish in an uncomfortable position despite having just one loss. Even with the likelihood of three-loss teams getting in this year, Notre Dame still had to approach Saturday's game against No. 1 Miami as something close to a must-win.

The Irish responded as needed, beating the Hurricanes 31-24 in a game they controlled throughout. Given the Irish's remaining schedule — Boston College, SMU, at Syracuse — they are just about playoff bound.

Saturday also served as an important pivot point for other teams that have been on the proverbial roller coaster of emotions