When the airing of grievances finally concludes, Notre Dame will do what he always does. The Irish will remain independent.
No matter the speculative tweets or the podcast debatesyou can’t seriously believe that the Irish’s omission from the College Football Playoff will force them into a conference.
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The Irish would love to make the playoffs, but they value their independence more than the college football playoffs.
This isn’t going to change just because the selection committee belatedly decided to recognize that Miami beat Notre Dame on the last day of August.
The Irish lost to the two toughest teams on their schedule. You think they want to endure nine games of SEC smoke? No chance.
Notre Dame would rather work its way through a modest November schedule Boston CollegeNavy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Stanford, then cry foul when they aren’t chosen for the group.
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Notre Dame and Oklahoma each finished 10-2. They finished three places apart in the CFP ranking. To reach their destination, the Irish faced four teams from Sagarin top 30. They lost by two. The Sooners played nine Sagarin top 30 teams and also lost to two.
Independence is more than a way of life. That’s more than an NBC paycheck. Notre Dame’s independence and scheduling agreement with the ACC, the Power Four’s weak link, provides a persistent path to 10 wins. This is an annual avenue of protest against the PCP.
Notre Dame is not suddenly going to join a conference
The breaks haven’t been kind to Notre Dame this season, but how quickly we forget the Irish’s magnificent run in the national championship game last season. The Leprechaun still enjoys a comfortable lifestyle residing in the independent lane – and that will only get better if the playoffs drag on.
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As Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua told Yahoo! Sportythe Irish view their independence “as part of our DNA” and “we have no intention of changing that”.
“It’s part of who Notre Dame is,” Bevacqua told Yahoo! Sporty. “Frankly, this further strengthens our independence. We are fighting for ourselves.”
Kind of a win-win, when you think about it. Either Notre Dame makes the playoffs or it spends the offseason playing the role of aggrieved loner.
To be clear, the CFP selection committee acted with brazen duplicity throughout this process and charted an unnecessarily cruel path to the destination of ranking Miami ahead of Notre Dame on Selection Day.
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The committee did not make a mistake in choosing Miami over Notre Dame. The teams had identical records, almost identical metrics, and the Hurricanes beat the Irish. Even Bevacqua said Miami “100%” deserves an offer, and he added Alabama also won his bid.
More than being angry at the selections, Bevacqua expressed dismay at how the committee acted for weeks as if the Irish were in order, only to take the bait and change at the 11th hour.
I can understand his frustration with the committee squabblebut my appreciation stops when it comes to Bevacqua’s persistent stomach ache on how an official ACC football social media account promoted Miami against Notre Dame for the playoffs. (The ACC was also stumped in favor of Miami over other bubble teams.)
In Bevacqua’s eyes, Notre Dame’s membership in the ACC for other sports and its football scheduling agreement with the ACC should have spared it from anti-Irish tweets.
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Oh, please. The Notre Dame lacrosse team’s first place in the ACC standings is supposed to buy @ACCFootball’s silence on X?
Be realistic.
If Notre Dame wants to be spared the mean tweets of ACC football, then join the conference, period.
In the meantime, Notre Dame Football and the ACC are friends with benefits, not blood brothers.
The ACC benefits from increased viewership and ticket sales from games with Notre Dame. The Irish serve Stanford up for slaughter during rivalry week. Everyone wins.
Without the ACC, the Irish would have difficulty scheduling their Power Four opponents in October and November, when schools are busy with their conference schedules.
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So, Bevacqua says he’s “surprised” and “disappointed” by the ACC’s nasty tweets “attacking our football program,” and he insists the social media posts “created damage” to Notre Dame-ACC relations.
OK, and what is he going to do about it?
Zippo.
“Everything can be cured,” Bevacqua agreed.
Exactly. It plays on the fans’ frustration and gives them a villain to attack. Two, actually. The CFP committee and @ACCFootball.
When the grievances cease, the Irish still need planning companions.
If the alternative to the ACC roadkill game is facing off against Ohio State or Alabama in November, I’m pretty sure I know where this will land for Notre Dame.
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Bring a second dose of Stanford, thank you very much.
Notre Dame makes its playoff desires clear
Put aside the nasty tweets, and the real takeaway from Bevacqua’s 40-minute press briefing was this: Notre Dame favors a 5+11 playoff format.
According to Bevacqua, this year’s Notre Dame, Texas and Vanderbilt teams would be a boon for the playoffs in a 5+11 format.
Bevacqua and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey remain allies. Notre Dame and the SEC are in favor of the playoffs extension in 5+11 format. This would keep five automatic bids for conference champions and increase to 11 at-large bids, up from seven at-large bids in the current 12-team format.
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The Big 12 and ACC publicly supported a 5+11 bracket earlier this year, with the Big Ten alone in opposition.
A bracket of 5+11, combined with Notre Dame’s independence, would work wonderfully. That increases the odds that a 12-0, 11-1 or 10-2 Irish team feasting on a heavy dose of ACC fare will make the playoffs.
What if the 12-team playoff stays in place? Well, Notre Dame also has a card up its sleeve.
According to Bevacqua, a memorandum of understanding which comes into force next season indicates that Notre Dame would be guaranteed a bid in a 12-team bracket provided it is positioned in the top 12 of the final rankings.
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In other words, no more Irish finishing No.11 in the rankings but missing out on an at-large bid.
A good deal, right?
This MOU, along with the possibility of a 5+11 playoff, provides additional flexibility for Notre Dame’s continued independence.
A little thing like missing these playoffs? It’s an inconvenience, and it fuels grievances, but it’s not enough fuel to force Notre Dame to change its DNA. Life is so good as a freelancer.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s lead national college football columnist. Send him an email to [email protected] and follow him on @btopppmeyer.
This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Will Notre Dame join a conference after CFP rejection? Yeah, that’s true
