Just like it used to be with conference realignment, every college football offseason now sees the potential for tweaks to the college football playoff. Notre Dame, as a conference unto itself, is a big part of these conversations and votes. Recently, they had their annual spring meeting for the CFP, and expansion to the playoff was (of course) one of the main topics.
According to a report by ESPN’s Heather Dinnich, Notre Dame is in favor of an expansion.
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“Multiple sources have said the ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame are leaning toward a 24-team field, though Notre Dame would still prefer a 16-team model. In order for the format to change after this season, though, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and Sankey have to agree on it because they have the bulk of control over it.”
Okay — but why?
Notre Dame is now operating under a MOU that states as long as the Irish are ranked #12 or better, they are in the college football playoff. This MOU was a big offseason topic for college football fans — many of which were angered by this special rule for Notre Dame.
But, we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about why the Irish would be in favor of expansion to a system they are already sitting in a good spot with for the foreseeable future.
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This is just a theory, but I think there’s some weight to it… this is all about the regular season schedule, and some new challenges Notre Dame may be facing for the first time since the days of Yost. The college football national championship is the greatest prize in all of collegiate sports, and the fact that the Indiana Hoosiers (maybe the worst Power 4 program in history) just won it all may have rewired the thinking of presidents and athletic directors around the country. Basically… if IU can do it, maybe they (everyone else) can too.
And how did Indiana do it? Well, one of the ways was to make sure they played absolutely NO ONE out of conference. This lightening of the load with out of conference scheduling is something that many programs (like Southern Cal) are starting to buy into, and could be a much more common theme of things don’t change.
And that brings us back to Notre Dame.
As an Independent with a scheduling agreement with the ACC, Notre Dame still needs to fill out 6-7 spots each year with other football programs — something that may be tougher and tougher to do as more and more teams go to this lame Indiana model. A 16 team playoff may help ease the anxiety of being “left out because of a loss” and therefore be more open to scheduling Notre Dame. A 24 team provides even more assurance that a program can suffer 2 or 3 losses and still be very much in the mix for a playoff berth.
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And that’s it. That’s the only reason I can possibly come up with as to why Notre Dame would support any expansion past 12. While there is certainly talk about more revenue being involved with expansion, I have a hard time believing Notre Dame would see a significant increase from its current deal (although I could certainly be wrong about that and this could ALL be about the money).
Expansion is going to happen sooner rather than later, and Notre Dame is onboard for it all. If you want a better looking schedule for the future (because all future agreements can always be changed) then maybe you need to be as well.
