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Penn State head coach James Franklin took a swipe at Notre Dame before the two teams meet in the College Football Playoff semifinal on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference alongside Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, Franklin emphasized that “everybody should be in a conference” for the sake of consistency across college football:
“It should be consistent across college football. This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference champion championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Notre Dame is one of three FBS independents, along with Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Fighting Irish are part of the ACC in other sports, but they have maintained their independence in football in part because it’s more financially beneficial for them.
NBC has been the broadcast partner with Notre Dame since the 1991 season. In November 2023, the network extended its contract through the 2029 season and will pay the school $50 million annually. This is in addition to $17.4 million the school gets per season from the ACC.
Staying independent also affords Notre Dame with scheduling flexibility that it wouldn’t have if it were part of a conference. This season alone saw the Irish play opponents in the SEC (Texas A&M), ACC (Louisville, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Virginia), MAC (Northern Illinois), Big Ten (Purdue) and AAC (Navy, Army).
They also had their traditional rivalry game against USC at the Coliseum on Nov. 30.
Since Notre Dame isn’t in a conference, it has to negotiate its own deal with the College Football Playoff. Even though the Irish can’t win a conference title, they do have an agreement in place that provides protections they will survive regardless of the ultimate format when the field expands to 14 teams in 2026.
Notre Dame finished fifth in the final College Football Playoff rankings, but it dropped to the No. 7 seed because the four highest-ranked conference champions get the top four seeds. The Irish were also behind non-conference champions Texas (No. 3) and Penn State (No. 4) in the rankings.
Thursday’s game will mark the 20th all-time meeting between Notre Dame and Penn State, with the series evenly split at 9-9-1.
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