Here's why Notre Dame doesn't like the Big Ten's controversial College Football Playoff model

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua has come out against the Big Ten’s controversial plan to reshape the College Football Playoff, joining the legion of other power brokers in the sport who have taken a position against the conference.

As an independent, Notre Dame currently plays to earn one of the seven at-large bids in the existing playoff, but the Big Ten wants to see an expanded 16-team format in the future that includes just three at-large selections.

What Notre Dame says it wants

“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.

“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.”

He added: “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.”

Changing views at the top

That seems to be the consensus of opinion among fans, and even now among most of the key decision makers in college football who will do the actual work of putting down on paper what the playoff will look like in the years to come.

Earlier in the offseason, it appeared the SEC and Big Ten were of one mind on how to do it, by awarding themselves four automatic qualifiers each, giving two each to the ACC and Big 12, one to the Group of Five champion, and the remaining three to who’s left.

Naturally, the brass at Notre Dame aren’t keen on such a narrow margin every year, considering their independent football team will be playing for one of those precious few spots, leaving little margin for error every Saturday.

Then, suddenly it all changed, as the SEC broke with the Big Ten, when it emerged the SEC dropped its support for the so-called 4+4+2+2+1 model, in favor of the 5+11, which gives five auto bids to conference champions and the other 11 to at-large teams.

What Notre Dame wants

Notre Dame hasn’t won a national championship for nearly 40 years, but came very close last season, getting all the way to the title game after going 11-1 in the regular season.

Clearly, the expanded bracket has turned out in Notre Dame’s favor, but the idea of lowering the number of at-large bids would seem to almost reverse that expansion in practical terms by severely limiting the opportunity it has to play into the postseason field.

Any expanded playoff that guarantees eight places, what would amount to half a 16-team field, to two conferences stands in direct contradiction to Notre Dame’s interests.

Will the Big Ten change its mind?

As it stands now in general terms, it appears the Big Ten stands alone against the SEC, the ACC, and the Big 12, the latter two openly deriding the 4+4+2+2+1 model as unfair.

And it doesn’t appear likely the Big Ten will change course unless the SEC makes a change to its football schedule by adding a ninth conference opponent every season.

The thinking from the Big Ten is that SEC teams would get what amounts to an artificial bump in their win-loss column by playing a perceived pushover team late in the season, while Big Ten schools still have to play a conference opponent.

There is no chance the Big Ten would support the 5+11 format if the SEC were to gain a perceived advantage to receive more at-large bids in an expanded playoff by playing more non-conference games late in the year, according to recent reporting.

With the SEC unlikely to make that change, the Big Ten is thus unlikely to alter it course on what the future College Football Playoff will look like.

And with no one expected to change their position, the playoff likely will not expand to 16 teams in the near future.

(Athletic)

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