NOTRE DAME — The good news: Notre Dame cracked the USA Today preseason football polls.

The less good news: So did five of their opponents, three of which rank in the top 10.

Notre Dame secured the 24th spot with 166 votes in the poll released Thursday, with LSU topping the poll at 1,403 votes.

Back in May, CBS Sports dubbed Notre Dame’s 2012 schedule the hardest in the country.

Just how hard?

They’ll be facing No. 3 USC, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 8 Michigan, No. 13 Michigan State and No. 18 Stanford this year.

Weeks three through eight will be a marathon for the Irish, who will tackle Michigan State, Michigan, Stanford and Oklahoma in that stretch with “only” Miami and BYU to break up the ranked opponents.

By comparison, only three of Notre Dame’s regular season opponents were ranked in the preseason last year (No. 7 Stanford, No. 17 Michigan State and No. 25 USC). Notre Dame was ranked 16.