Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
ATLANTA — The expanded College Football Playoff offers advantages to being in a conference: From the automatic bid for winning your league to receiving a bye as one of the four highest-ranked conference champions.
But Notre Dame doesn’t sound ready to join a league despite those bonuses.
“We’re comfortable that if conference championship games continue as they’re currently configured, part of the deal we made is that we wouldn’t get a bye, and that’s understandable,” new athletic director Pete Bevacqua said ahead of Monday night’s national championship game between the Irish and Ohio State.
Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman greets his players as they warm up before playing against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the CFP National Championship. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
“And quite frankly, I wouldn’t trade that [first-round] Indiana game at Notre Dame Stadium for anything in the world, but you also have to be smart and strategic, and your odds of making a national championship game are increased if you get to play one less game.”
The four teams that received a bye, Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State, didn’t reach the title game. In fact, all four lost in the quarterfinal round. Changes could be coming at some point soon.
There is a groundswell for the four highest-ranked teams to receive a bye, whether they win their conference title games or not.
Reseeding is another idea that has been discussed.
Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua talks during media day ahead of the College Football Playoff national championship game. AP
It doesn’t sound like major changes could happen, however, before 2026, when a new, six-year contract with ESPN begins for the 12-team playoff.
Bevacqua and the FBS commissioners met on Sunday to review the first year of the expanded playoff.
Rich Clark, the new executive director of the College Football Playoff, has said that changes would need to be agreed upon more than a few months in advance to implement.
“I think everybody wants what’s best for the overall system,” Bevacqua said. “It was interesting, when you think about those four teams that got a bye, they didn’t advance. Now I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that they got a bye, I think that was mostly competition and happenstance.
“But I think there’ll be a good, honest conversation that will start tomorrow. Are there any changes that we ought to make from this year to next year and make something that’s worked really well work even better? Will there be changes? I’m just one person. I’m not sure.”
Bevacqua does seem certain that Notre Dame is comfortable remaining independent.
This year showed why. Despite that ugly Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois, the Irish still reached the playoff, and entered Monday night one win away from their first national championship since 1988.
According to the playoff website, Notre Dame will earn a total of $20 million for its playoff run.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman leads the team onto the field before the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Unlike other teams, it doesn’t have to share the profit with other teams in a conference.
It received $4 million for making the playoff, $4 million more for reaching the quarterfinals, $6 million for advancing to the semifinals and another $6 million for the national championship game.
“No secret, the expansion of the CFP from four to 12 teams has helped enormously, because as an independent, as with other schools, we get better opportunities, better percentages of getting in the playoffs, and the more you knock on that national championship door, the better,” Bevacqua said. “And we like the freedom, quite frankly, it gives us. The fact we were able to play Navy at MetLife and had the Shamrock Series against Army at Yankee Stadium, that we can continue that great rivalry with USC — we really get to move around the map and keep that very national presence. It’s a wonderful thing for our football program and, quite frankly, it’s a wonderful thing for the university.”
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.