Notre Dame wont trade independent status for chance at College Football Playoff bye

ATLANTA — The expanded College Football Playoff offers advantages to being in a conference: From the automatic bid for winning your league to receiving a bye as one of the four highest-ranked conference champions.But Notre Dame doesn’t sound ready to join a league despite those bonuses.“We’re comfortable that if conference championship games continue as they’re currently configured, part of the deal we made is that we wouldn’t get a bye, and that’s understandable,” new athletic director Pete Bevacqua said ahead of Monday night’s national championship game between the Irish and Ohio State.“And quite frankly, I wouldn’t trade that [first-round] Indiana game at Notre Dame Stadium for anything in the world, but you also have to be smart and strategic, and your odds of making a national championship game are increased if you get to play one less game.”The four teams that received a bye, Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State, didn’t reach the title game.

In fact, all four lost in the quarterfinal round.Changes could be coming at some point soon.

There is a groundswell for the four highest-ranked teams to receive a bye, whether they win their conference title games or not.Reseeding is another idea that has been discussed.

It doesn’t sound like major changes could happen, however, before 2026, when a new, six-year contract with ESPN begins for the 12-team playoff.Bevacqua and the FBS commissioners met on Sunday to review the first year of the expanded playoff.

Rich Clark, the new executive director of the College Football Playoff, has said that changes would need to be agreed upon more than a few months in advance to implement.“I think everybody wants what’s best for the overall system,” Bevacqua said.“It was interesting, when you think about those four teams that got a bye, they didn’t advance.

Now I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that they got a bye, I think that was mostly competition and happenstan...