{"id":249135,"date":"2025-07-30T22:52:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/249135\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T22:52:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:52:17","slug":"why-notre-dame-objects-to-big-tens-college-football-playoff-format-irish-ad-wants-to-earn-it-on-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/249135\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Notre Dame objects to Big Ten’s College Football Playoff format: Irish AD wants to ‘earn it on the field’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notre Dame<\/a> athletic director Pete Bevacqua is not in favor of the Big Ten’s\u00a0College Football<\/a> Playoff proposal. Like commissioners from the Big 12, ACC and SEC, he supports keeping the number of automatic qualifiers at five<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As an independent, the Fighting Irish currently compete for one of seven available at-large spots in the 12-team format. The Big Ten is advocating for a 16-team playoff with four automatic conference qualifiers: four from the SEC, two from the ACC, two from the Big 12, one Group of Five team and three at-large selections.<\/p>\n

“I happen to think that there should be automatic qualifiers for the Power Four conference champions, and there should be an automatic qualifier for the highest-rated Group of Five champion,” Bevacqua told The Athletic<\/a>. “But then, whether it’s 12, 14 or 16 [teams], I think you have to earn it on the field. And those should be at-large berths. I think that’s the best way — the most repeatable way — to get the very best teams to compete for a national championship year in and year out. And I think most people agree with that. Both the decision-makers, the general public, football fans — I think that’s what people want to see.”<\/p>\n

Notre Dame stands to benefit from the new seeding overhaul set to begin in 2025. Previously, the Fighting Irish could earn, at best, the No. 5 seed, without the possibility of a first-round bye, as the top four seeds were reserved for conference champions.<\/p>\n

Now, the process is less rigid. Under the revised system, the top four teams in the selection committee’s final rankings receive first-round byes and advance directly to the quarterfinals. Last season, the top four highest-ranked conference champions received those byes, regardless of their overall ranking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

8-4 teams in the CFP? Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti explains vision for college football postseason<\/p>\n

\n Brandon Marcello <\/p>\n

\"8-4<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nWhy the 5+11 model is advantageous for Irish<\/p>\n

The Fighting Irish haven’t won a national title since 1988, but they made two appearances in the four-team playoff format (2018, 2020) and earned a spot in the 2024 expanded bracket after finishing 11\u20131 in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame reached the title game last season as the No. 7 seed, and strength of schedule is a key component in the Fighting Irish’s pursuit a national championship. Beginning in 2027, Notre Dame and Clemson<\/a> will begin a 12-year series<\/a> as part of the Fighting Irish’s scheduling alliance with the ACC. In addition, Notre Dame will play four other ACC schools annually — including several scheduled matchups with Florida State<\/a> and Miami<\/a> — in an effort to strengthen a schedule that features consistent playoff-caliber opponents.<\/p>\n

As Bevacqua pointed out, expanding the bracket to 14 or 16 teams with more automatic bids for Power Four conference champions could diminish Notre Dame’s chances. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti has suggested “play-in” games during conference championship weekend as a way to normalize scheduling across the Big Ten, which features more than a dozen teams and a nine-game conference slate.<\/p>\n

For Notre Dame, an expanded playoff format that guarantees eight or more spots to Big Ten and SEC teams — likely even more, given those conferences’ dominance in selection committee rankings — doesn’t make much sense. In the proposed 5+11 model supported by the ACC, Big 12 and SEC, 11 at-large spots would be available — potentially offering more paths for an independent team like Notre Dame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua is not in favor of the Big Ten’s\u00a0College Football Playoff proposal. Like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2786,331,332,7,49,48,1401,4732],"class_list":{"0":"post-249135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-big-ten","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-college-football-playoff","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-notre-dame","15":"tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114944642085469587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}