https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-selection-notre-dame-mou-2026-schedule/

Starting next year ND gets in if ranked 12th or better!?

I wouldn't be surprised to see changes implemented for even as early as next year. They have until January 23rd to agree to changes. If not the same format is used next year. Changes are inevitable though. It's very likely going to at least 16 teams and the Big10 has been proposing a 24 team model.

Luigi Vampa said:

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Who?mikejones! said:

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Im not sure even an undefeated record against that schedule merits a top 12 rank.

3 true road games. A bunch of ****ty teams. They shouldn't even have a route to a playoff slot with that competition

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They better go undefeated, because an 11-1 record with that pile of **** looks like they will be ranked 13th.

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Best chances to lose would be Miami and SMU, but both are at home and I think they win anyway.

Anyone saying our schedule this year was too easy should look at ND 2026.

jsc8116 said:

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How did they manage to get only 3 road games and get USC to play at ND again vs at USC in 2026?

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7 home
3 true road
Wiscy @ Lambeau
Navy @ Foxborough

And a guaranteed ticket for top 12. This says more about how weak the NCAA powers that be are than anything else. The moment they re-do the playoffs to 16 they've got to hold ND's feet to the fire.

jsc8116 said:

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How did they manage to get only 3 road games and get USC to play at ND again vs at USC in 2026?

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USC is not in South Bend. Schedule says "City", maybe it's in Chicago?

This isn't really anything new. ND had special rules during the BCS and 4-team eras with bowl-tie ins. ND ruined A LOT of BCS, NY6, and R1 playoff games. Up til last year, you could count of them getting embarrassed in the post season.

I don't want to give ND any undue credit but that schedule has a not of name brand, power 5, action on it. Especially understanding that schedule was put together 5-10 years ago. ND had no idea back then that the majority of those programs would all be in the crapper in 2025 & 2026.

That being said, screw the college football powers for carving out special deals and niches for Notre Dame. If you're not in a P5 conference and contributing to the collective health and benefit of the product and the league, you deserve to be lumped in with 'others' who aren't contributing as much as the P5 teams & leagues.

How did ND get this deal?

Who voted? Was it other ADs? or ESPN? I cannot imagine any other actual school AD voting for this special ND rule. Everyone wants ND to join a freaking conference. ACC / Big 10 are the top possibilities, so no way they would want to make it easier / better for ND to stay independent. And the SEC hates seeing other schools play cupcakes while we have the most brutal schedule in all of CFB.

Really, who voted for this special rule for ND?

TxAg76 said:

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What does this teach to everyone else?
Throw a tantrum like a toddler and mom and dad will give in?

The entitlement mentality is maddening.
Might even be worse than t.u.'s

**** Notre Dame

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No one is worse than tu.

They were doing the same amount of *****ing despite having THREE losses, two of which were very bad losses.

They were threatening to cancel their future big non-conference games and acting as if they are about to start some CFB-wide movement. They were talking about how leaving them out of the playoff was a "disservice to the sport." Just a complete joke and misplaced sense of self importance.

ND sucks, tu is the WORST.

They want to be treated like they're the conference champion of a one-team conference

Just add a strength of schedule rider to it If their schedule doesn't end up being good enough, then the ranking rule for them is null.

Talking about Notre Dame was so yesterday!

ElephantRider said:

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They want to be treated like they're the conference champion of a one-team conference

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I was saying the same thing earlier today. Everyone should consider this special treatment, but it's especially egregious for the ACC and the G5.

Don't even give ND a seat at the effing table. If they're' one of the 12 most CFP worthy teams, let them in. If not, so what. They made their bed, not being in a major conference in exchange for their own massive tv deal, so let them lay in it.

I'd like to see every top school just stop scheduling them, so that they never really have a chance to "prove" how good they are.

Here's another question. The composition of the Committee changes every year. And every year they has tweked or made new rules for how they were going handle their duties. So just because this Committee may have extracted such an agreement, would future Committees consider themselves bound by it?

Would love to see the committee rank them 13 Just because. In reality, espn wants the eyeballs they bring, even more so now with them pissing off everyone else in cfb.

Quote:

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In reality, espn wants the eyeballs they bring,

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They don't bring nearly the viewers you think.

And they would be in this year if they cared about Notre Dame ratings.

BMX Bandit said:

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Quote:

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In reality, espn wants the eyeballs they bring,

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They don't bring nearly the viewers you think.

And they would be in this year if they cared about Notre Dame ratings.

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The ACC champ being Duke forced them to choose between shutting out a "power 4" conference or shutting out ND. They would have preferred for uva to win so that ND could play too.

Who?mikejones! said:

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Im not sure even an undefeated record against that schedule merits a top 12 rank.

3 true road games. A bunch of ****ty teams. They shouldn't even have a route to a playoff slot with that competition

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But Rice is in a really expensive part of Houston

The people that REALLY shouldn't want this is the BIG/SEC leadership. A ND team that doesn't have to share playoff profits with anyone versus a Big10 that has to share 3 playoff shares with 18 teams is a huge difference.

TxAg76 said:

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What does this teach to everyone else?
Throw a tantrum like a toddler and mom and dad will give in?

The entitlement mentality is maddening.
Might even be worse than t.u.'s

**** Notre Dame

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Or throw water bottles on the field until the call is overturned?

Sean98 said:

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The people that REALLY shouldn't want this is the BIG/SEC leadership. A ND team that doesn't have to share playoff profits with anyone versus a Big10 that has to share 3 playoff shares with 18 teams is a huge difference.

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SEC should demand that any SEC team ranked in the top 12 be guaranteed an invite.

Luigi Vampa said:

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Who?mikejones! said:

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Im not sure even an undefeated record against that schedule merits a top 12 rank.

3 true road games. A bunch of ****ty teams. They shouldn't even have a route to a playoff slot with that competition

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They better go undefeated, because an 11-1 record with that pile of **** looks like they will be ranked 13th.

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Nope, they will be ranked #3 or higher to begin the season. They lose to Miami and drop to #7 like we did.

It seems that the mou is with the CFP, not the playoff committee. CFP Administration, LLC runs the committee and has two layers of oversight: a board of directors and a managing board. Each has 11 members representing the 10 FBS conferences and, get this, Notre Dame. No wonder they get a sweetheart deal.

https://collegefootballplayoff.com/sports/2019/4/3/governance.aspx

Just do away with auto bids and make everyone, essentially, "top 12 and you're in".

If you want to keep conference championships "important" than make it where the lowest ranked top 12 from a conference is replaced by the team that won the conference championship. If there is no top 12 team from your conference, nobody gets in. If you have a situation like this year where Miami is 10 and Duke is lower, then Duke swaps in for Miami (stupid, but if you want to make sure the conference championship is a "reward").

Autobids are never going away.

People need to realize that and stop whining about them

Thank you for that clarification.

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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Just do away with auto bids and make everyone, essentially, "top 12 and you're in".

If you want to keep conference championships "important" than make it where the lowest ranked top 12 from a conference is replaced by the team that won the conference championship. If there is no top 12 team from your conference, nobody gets in. If you have a situation like this year where Miami is 10 and Duke is lower, then Duke swaps in for Miami (stupid, but if you want to make sure the conference championship is a "reward").

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The problem is not having championship autobids, it's that the ACC completely mismanaged itself. It has too many teams, which led to so many of them being tied at the top, and then they chose their tie breakers poorly.

Since we only have 4 "power conferences," this year's disaster could have been prevented by having just four autobids. G5 already has an automatic admission. That's enough.

This is the way...

After learning of Notre Dame's memorandum of understanding that grants the Irish preferential playoff access starting next year, athletic directors in other leagues are threatening to freeze Notre Dame out of future schedules, per @DanWolken pic.twitter.com/xrxN3meME8

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 11, 2025