But the question remains: Had the Irish hung on to win but Oklahoma still made the Playoff instead on style points, would that have prompted a serious evaluation on Swarbrick’s part about whether full conference affiliation is needed?

“No, not at all,” he replied. “It’s not any 11-1 finish. Had we played differently against Wake Forest and Boston College and finished 11-1, it might raise a different question. But we had lost the edge we carried into those games relative to the Selection Committee’s view of us. In some ways that hurt us more than the Stanford outcome.”



Because the Irish finished No. 8 in the Selection Committee's poll at the end of the regular season, they could have gotten in with the eight-team Playoff in 2015. However, Swarbrick sees no groundswell of support in the collegiate ranks to expand to eight teams — and he would oppose it even if there was.

“There is zero momentum in that regard, and I am not in favor of it,” Swarbrick replied about an eight-team format. “I think the four works, and in many ways it has exceeded our expectations. I think it has preserved interest in the other bowls, which we were worried about. It’s made for a compelling, compact playoff.

“And when you talk about this, as we do, the Committee talks to the schools that have been through the process. The prospect of playing a third game in the playoff window — we’ve yet to find a coach who thought that was a good idea after they played two. It’s just tough.”

The four-team Playoff is ideal to Swarbrick for two other main reasons.

One, it doesn’t dilute the importance and every-week-is-a-playoff excitement of the regular season. No sport, college or pro, has a more gripping regular season than FBS football, and the leaders want to keep it that way.

Second, the bowl tradition is maintained and remains significant to many teams throughout college football.



What if Notre Dame is blessed to have a few 11-1 regular seasons now through 2025, and still gets left out of the four-team Playoff?

Swarbrick is not swayed by this hypothetical. One of the foremost mandates through his first eight years on the job has been to preserve Notre Dame’s football independence however possible and as long as possible.

“We have accepted from day one that there will be years where our independence will work against us in getting into the College Football Playoff,” he said. “I don’t know what year that will occur, but we’re very comfortable with that trade-off, that the benefits of independence are worth the inevitability that there will be a year where our independence hurts us. We’re fine with that trade-off.”

Here’s the deal: Notre Dame has lost a minimum of three games in 21 of its last 22 football seasons (2012 the exception). Thus, it would be nice to first become a good enough program to where 11-1 becomes a potential “problem.”


[Post edited by TerryD at 07/10/2016 10:12PM]