Special carve-out in the College Football Playoff agreement for Notre Dame; we hardly knew ye. Nor did we need ye, despite what so many analysts and fans claimed when they bellyached about “fairness.”
On Monday morning, ESPN and the College Football Playoff announced a new agreement that will expand the playoff field to 24 teams starting next year. This new agreement did not include the provision that exists only this season: if the Fighting Irish are ranked No. 12, no teams could jump them.
The new field will include automatic bids for the Power 4 (otherwise known as the Autonomy 4) conference champions (with how those champions will be determined still undecided) as well as the highest-ranked Group of 6. The other 19 seeds will all be at-large bids. That includes Notre Dame, which would have made the playoffs last year if the field had been 24 teams.
While some see the 24-team field as an “everyone gets a participation trophy” approach, Notre Dame might benefit more than any other team in the country from this change.
Notre Dame football gains major CFP advantages from 24-team field and A4 scheduling standards
The first benefit is that the Fighting Irish won’t have to worry too much if they suffer two (or sometimes even three) losses in the regular season. Saturday night might have essentially ended their season if they’d lost to Miami. They’d almost certainly still be alive even if they were only ranked No. 11 in the first CFP Poll. A loss to the No. 1 team in the country wouldn’t drop them 14 spots.
The second benefit is a new rule included in the agreement between the CFP and ESPN:
“Autonomy 4 Conference (A4) Scheduling Standards - Each A4 institution will be expected to play at least 10 qualifying regular season games consisting of the following:
Conference games: Non-conference games versus A4 conference opponents and Notre Dame.”
In other words, teams like USC, who backed out of a series against the Irish precisely because they wanted to water down their schedule, now have to schedule at least one A4 non-conference opponent. Knowing the Trojans, they’ll look to schedule the worst Big 12 or ACC team they can find, but if they're rebuffed, they might come running back to Marcus Freeman and company.
This rule also means that all the schools that talked about boycotting Notre Dame won’t have the luxury of doing so if they want to compete for a CFP spot.
All of this is worth remembering when troll accounts and Paul Finebaum claim the new deal hurts Notre Dame. Not only does it not hurt Notre Dame, but it also helps the Fighting Irish.
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