Notre Dame remained independent amid considerable conference alignment. That designation could hurt the Fighting Irish under the new College Football Playoff format.
Joe Pompliano noted that the expanded 12-team bracket automatically awards the top-four seeds to conference champions. Those teams receive a first-round bye.
As a result, Notre Dame would have to win four straight games to secure a national title even if garnering the nation’s top rank.
Notre Dame twice made the four-team CFP in its 10-year history. The Fighting Irish lost a semifinal matchup to Clemson as the No. 3 seed in the 2018 season and fell to Alabama as the No. 4 seed two years later.
Marcus Freeman’s squad wouldn’t have made a 12-team cut last season. Notre Dame finished No. 16 in the CFP rankings when going 9-3 before a Sun Bowl triumph over Oregon State.
Major conference shakeups led to rumors of Notre Dame joining the Big Ten, but the prestigious program will stay independent after extending its media rights deal with NBC through 2029.
“We don’t do it because it’s financially advantageous or competitively advantageous,” Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said of maintaining its independent status in December. “We do it because of the value to the university.”
Notre Dame agreed to the new playoff format in 2021 before declining the Big Ten’s advances. And since a four-team system favored conference champions even without strict requirements, multiplying the field still gives the Fighting Irish a better chance to compete for their first national title since 1988.