While the Notre Dame football team gets ready for the playoffs, it’s pretty clear that there are some opposing coaches that are feeling some type of way about the Irish being in the field despite not winning a conference.
Notre Dame football has long been the aim of plenty of critics this season not because the team is 11-1. Not even because that one loss was to Northern Illinois. But because the Irish have controlled their own destiny from the start thanks to not needing to play in a conference championship game. Penn State coach James Franklin was the latest to voice his displeasure. Even if he didn’t have the guts to call out the Fighting Irish specifically.
Notre Dame football draws the ire of Penn State’s James Franklin
James Franklin takes a shot at Notre Dame on ESPN
— Oliver Hodgkinson (@ojhodgkinson) December 8, 2024
"everyone should be playing a conference championship"
Speaking about the field on ESPN, Franklin didn’t deliver a long soliloquy. Instead, he delivered his opinion short and sweet.
"Everyone should be playing a conference championship,” Franklin said.
As College Football Network college editor Oliver Hodgkinson said, it was pretty clear that Franklin wasn’t just talking about teams like Tennessee and Ohio State being in the playoffs without being in a conference title game.
“It was definitely aimed at ND,” Hodgkinson when asked to clarify. “The rest of the rant was about playing a conference schedule and playing in a conference.”
Despite Franklin being bent out of shape about Notre Dame football in the playoffs despite not part of a conference, the Irish are indeed in. And there are more than a few who think they’d beat the Nittany Lions if they squared off in later rounds. Maybe Franklin will get to see that up close and personal.