Coming off another close victory in South Bend, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have held steady as the fifth-ranked team in this week's AP Top 25 poll. Each of the four teams ahead of the Irish also won their respective games this week, so there were no changes to the top 5.

After nearly losing to the Stanford Cardinal last week, the Irish needed a similarly gutsy effort to avoid an upset against the BYU Cougars. Notre Dame actually trailed at halftime, but the defense bailed out the offense by completely shutting down BYU's offense in the second half.

At the moment, Alabama, Florida, Oregon and Kansas State are all still ahead of the Irish in the rankings after impressive victories on Saturday. Notre Dame could make a huge statement in its next game, though: a road match-up against the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners.

If Notre Dame can stay unbeaten following next week's game in Norman, the path toward entering the season finale against the USC Trojans unbeaten seems reasonable.