Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE committee chairman, Jeff Long, ex- plained differently. "We said it last year and the same is true this year," he said, "a confer- ence championship game, not having or having it, can help or hurt you, de- pending on the circumstances of that particular season. This season is very different than last season." Indeed, each year will present its own unique set of circumstances and challenges for the committee. And to apply a blind criticism against Notre Dame's independence and 12-game scheduling philosophy is reckless and unfounded, especially when two years of committee selection data already il- lustrates the benefits of both a 12- and a 13-game playoff path. Ohio State needed a 13th game last season to claim a Big Ten champion- ship, then a spot into the four-team playoff, and eventually a national title. Meanwhile, this year, Oklahoma of the Big 12 was thrilled to finish its regular season 11-1, take championship week- end off, and enjoy its secure spot in the playoffs, staying free of a nothing-to- gain and everything-to-lose conference championship game that its 10-team league doesn't play. Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick — the man who helped de- vise the playoff criteria — agrees with Long's assessment, telling Sports Il- lustrated that in its first two seasons of work, the selection committee has pro- vided no alerts for any reevaluation of his scheduling strategies. "From the perspective of someone who participated in the decision mak- ing for the structure," Swarbrick said, "I'm very pleased with how it's gone, especially the approaches taken by the selection committee." By staying free of conference con- straints, No. 8 Notre Dame was the lone team in the country to play five different teams ranked in the final College Football Playoff top 25: No. 1 Clemson, No. 6 Stanford, No. 21 Navy, No. 24 Temple and No. 25 USC — a diverse opponent list from a variety of locations no conference member team in the country could ever make hap- pen. Next season the Irish welcome into Notre Dame Stadium an impressive guest list of Michigan State, Stanford, Miami, Virginia Tech, Duke and Ne- vada, and they will also play games in Austin, Texas; New York City; San Antonio; Raleigh, N.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Los Angeles, almost all fertile recruiting bases. The point is this: Notre Dame knows what it's doing with its mission and scheduling initiatives, and any naive or pile-jumping judgments that joining a conference is the only way into the playoffs don't hold up. "I know there have been some people who have speculated that this is creat- ing pressure on us to give up indepen- dence, and nothing could be farther from the truth," Swarbrick said. "We are as comfortable now with the ben- efits for the university of independence as we ever have been." ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com